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Media experts and advocates for freedom of expression have argued that there is no direct law to protect the journalists in most of the countries in South Asia. They were speaking in a day-long training workshop on safety of journalists with a feminist approach organized jointly by Media Action Nepal and ARTICLE19 today in Kathmandu. The workshop was supported by Global Affairs Canada. Despite progressive legislation across South Asia, there are no concrete laws to protect journalists in South Asia other than Pakistan. Media trainers have complained that the South Asian countries do not have direct laws regarding the welfare of the journalists. Most of the South Asian countries have signed and ratified the international treaties such as CEDAW and ICCPR, however, practical execution of it is dismal, they lamented. A group of 20 female journalists participating from all the provinces of Nepal complained, “We have all experienced some sort of threats, sexual assault, and gender discrimination at least once during our professional journey.” I was called by the security force of the country which threatened and behaved derogatorily for writing news on them, a participant shared. Chairperson of the Media Action Nepal Laxman Datt Pant said, “Laws are being framed to restrict and refrain the freedom of expression. We need to protect the journalists in and outside the newsroom to ensure their safety.” Adding that journalists face risks and abuse depending on their race and sexual orientation, religion, and other characteristics, Pant called for institutionalizing  a strong system to support journalists in danger. Women journalists face multiple safety threats such as stereotyping, harassment, and gender discrimination, he added. “Not only the countries, even media houses do not have any policies regarding the safety of the journalists”, said Rumky Farhana, FEMSOJ project Lead in South Asia for ARTICLE 19. Equal inclusive and non-discriminative policy must be implemented on the basis of gender diversity, she added. Likewise, Faruq Faisel, Regional Director, ARTICLE 19 South Asia thanked the participants for their attentive and engaged role for the successful completion of the training. The training workshop was facilitated by Laxman Datt Pant and Namrata Sharma.

With a strong product portfolio and market presence, Xiaomi has been one of the leading smartphone brands in Nepal. The Chinese handset major recently launched the Redmi Note 12 series as well as Redmi 12C in the Nepali market. Besides, the company has recently launched the new Xiaomi Exchange Offer. ApEx talked to Amit Kumar Panda, Country General Manager of Xiaomi Nepal to know about the market expansion of Xiaomi, newly launched products, and the current state of the company’s business in Nepal. Excerpts: Xiaomi has achieved big success in Nepal since its official market inception in 2018. What factors are behind this success? Xiaomi’s success can be attributed to its dedication to providing affordable yet high-quality products, its innovative business approach, strategic global expansion, investment in research and development, and effective leadership. These factors have allowed Xiaomi to attract a wide customer base, foster brand loyalty, stay ahead of industry trends, and establish itself as one of the fastest-growing brands in its field. The brand has become popular among consumers due to its competitive pricing, feature-rich devices, and reputation for offering value-for-money products. We prioritize delivering the best specifications, superior quality, and fair pricing. Xiaomi’s focus on affordable smartphones with impressive features has resonated well with price-conscious Nepali consumers who desire high-quality devices at affordable prices. Our expansion in the Nepali market has been facilitated by effective marketing strategies, extensive distribution networks, and reliable after-sales service. The company has made an effort to understand the needs and preferences of Nepali consumers and tailor its product offerings accordingly. This customer-centric approach has played a crucial role in building a loyal customer base for Xiaomi in Nepal. We express our gratitude to our Xiaomi Fans for their appreciation and support which has helped us to become the number one smartphone brand in Nepal for the past three years. The company has recently launched the Redmi Note 12 series. What are the key features of the phones of this series? With the Snapdragon 685 Mobile Platform, the Redmi Note 12 offers a smooth and efficient multitasking experience across various activities such as photography, gaming, audio, and streaming. On the other hand, the Redmi Note 12 5G is equipped with the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 5G processor, which provides reliable performance for content creation, gaming, and 5G connectivity. Meanwhile, the Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G utilizes the MediaTek Dimensity 1080 processor, delivering impressive performance for gaming, daily tasks, content creation, camera processing, and 5G connectivity. Our competitive pricing strategy further solidifies its position in the market. By offering affordable options without compromising on quality or features, Redmi attracts a larger customer base and gains market share. This approach enables Redmi to effectively compete with other smartphone brands by providing a compelling value proposition that resonates with consumers in Nepal. The positive perception of Redmi’s affordability fosters long-term customer relationships and opens doors for further market expansion. Could you elaborate on the significance of Redmi 12C’s pricing strategy? The Redmi 12C is designed as an entry-level smartphone to meet the demands of budget-conscious Xiaomi users in Nepal. However, we have not compromised on the technology and specifications of the device. We understand that affordability plays a crucial role as it enables a broader range of consumers to access and benefit from advanced technologies. There is a significant market demand for budget smartphones, and by offering a device with robust specifications at a lower price point, Redmi allows more individuals to enjoy the advantages of modern smartphones. We recognize that many consumers prioritize affordability, and our aim is to provide them with a device that offers excellent value for their money without compromising on quality or features. With the introduction of 5G capabilities at a price equivalent to a 4G device, the Redmi Note 12 5G stands out as the best affordable 5G phone in Nepal. Can you shed light on how Redmi managed to incorporate flagship features without compromising on specs and quality at such a competitive price? Redmi has successfully managed to incorporate flagship features and maintain high-quality specifications in the Redmi Note 12 5G while keeping it affordable in the Nepali market. This achievement is made possible through Xiaomi's strong supply chain, efficient manufacturing processes, emphasis on research and development, direct-to-consumer business model, and strategic pricing approach. These factors collectively enable Redmi to offer a budget-friendly 5G smartphone without compromising on specifications or quality. They prioritize delivering value-for-money products to cater to a wide range of consumers, including those who seek affordable options without compromising on specifications or quality. Xiaomi Nepal has recently launched Xiaomi Exchange Offer. Can you please explain how this exchange offer works and what benefits it provides to customers? The Xiaomi Exchange Offer allows customers to trade in their old smartphones, regardless of the brand, for a discount on the purchase of a new Xiaomi, Redmi, or POCO device. The valuation of the old phones is conducted at www.nayapurano.shop, and the customer can choose to exchange for our phones. This initiative is designed to provide customers with added value and convenience while encouraging them to upgrade to the latest Xiaomi products. Additionally, as a token of appreciation for choosing Xiaomi, we are offering an extra Rs 1,000 off on the purchase of the recently launched Redmi Note 12 5G via Xiaomi Exchange Offer. This demonstrates our commitment to delivering exceptional value to our Xiaomi fans. Moreover, through the exchange process, customers can also upgrade their existing 4G phones to 5G models. Could you shed light on the significance of setting a new benchmark for Nepali smartphone consumers and how it reflects Xiaomi’s commitment to meeting their needs? When Xiaomi sets a new benchmark, it signifies our commitment to pushing the limits of technology, design, and affordability. By introducing advanced features, powerful performance, and competitive pricing, Xiaomi raises the standard for other smartphone manufacturers, fostering healthy competition and driving innovation within the industry. Through the boundary-pushing approach, Xiaomi aims to deliver products that provide excellent value for money while incorporating valuable consumer feedback. This constant drive for improvement allows Xiaomi to enhance the smartphone experience for Nepali consumers and maintain its position as a preferred choice for those who appreciate cutting-edge technology. Nepali economy is currently in a downturn which has affected business activities in the country. How has it impacted Xiaomi’s business? In the current global economic situation, where the economy is experiencing significant strain, we at Xiaomi carefully plan our product offerings. Our focus is on providing pocket-friendly products to our Xiaomi Fans, ensuring that they don’t have to spend unnecessary money. With this in mind, we have introduced the Redmi 12C in various variants and priced them accordingly. As smartphone usage has increased recently, people tend to opt for higher-end and latest models. In response to this trend, we have adjusted our plans and pricing, taking into account the prevailing recessionary conditions. Our aim is to launch products in price ranges that are easily affordable for our Xiaomi fans. We are delighted with our market growth and the fact that we have been leading the market. Compared to the previous year, our growth has reached a significant 35 percent. Despite the challenging economic circumstances, it has been a blessing for us that our Xiaomi fans have shown immense love and support for both us and our new product offerings.

Lawmakers have demanded formulation of laws for implementation of fundamental rights including right to employment, food security and housing. During the deliberations on the budget headings of Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development under the Appropriation Bill-2080 at the House of Representatives today, they mentioned that it was the matter of concern that laws required to realize the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution have not been formulated even eight years after promulgation of the Constitution. Lawmaker Arjun Narsingh KC said the government should pay attention as two types of human resources have been produced due to lack of amendment to the Education Act-2028. Stating that guardians are complaining that Budhanilkantha School has become a place of corruption, he drew the attention of the education minister in this regard. Lawmakers—Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan, Prakash Adhikari, Sher Bahadur Kunwar, Abdul Khan, Arun Kumar Chaudhary and Yogendra Mandal among others expressed their views on the headings of Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. They stressed that the Sports Council should not be developed as a political center.

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has said that 123 ropani of public land has been protected in the current fiscal year. Addressing public complaints on unauthorized use of public land, KMC Mayor Balendra Shah said that the KMC has managed to protect 123 ropani of public land in the current year. The public land protection was carried out as per the manifesto he released during the local level elections held a year ago. Likewise, the work of building 25 new parks, installing smart street lights, removing footpath shops and vendors and making it easy to use for the public has also been accomplished within a year. The KMC has installed 1,700 smart street lights during the period Mayor Shah said that 42 kilometers of roads have been paved, seven kilometers of new sewers constructed, and 1,500 meters of footpaths constructed. Similarly, the Book Free Friday program is being conducted for the first time in all public schools in the metropolitan city from the current academic session.

An international aircraft landed for the first time at Pokhara International Airport today since its operation on January 1, 2023. A direct chartered flight of the Sichuan Airlines from Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, China landed at the airport at 9:06 am, according to TIA information officer Bishnu Adhikari. The A-391 airbus of the Sichuan Airlines arrived in Pokhara carrying a Nepali delegation led by National Assembly Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina who returned home following the completion of China visit and Chinese athletes and tourists. The squad of Chinese athletes arrived in course of taking part in the Nepal-China Friendship Dragon Boat Festival to take place on Friday and Saturday at Fewa Lake. Gandaki Province Chief Prithvi Man Gurung, Chief Minister Surendra Raj Pandey, Federal Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Sudan Kirati and Pokhara Metropolis mayor Dhanraj Acharya were there at the airport to receive the passengers. The airport said it is yet to be updated about a probable next flight of the airlines for Pokhara.  

With just one month left for the current fiscal year to end, the government’s capital expenditure has stood at a mere 40 percent of the total allocation. According to the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO), the government’s capital expenditure as of mid-June reached Rs 151.43bn which is 39.81 percent of the allocated budget for the current fiscal year 2022/23. The government had initially set a capital expenditure target of Rs 380.38bn which was slashed to Rs 313.85 percent in the half-yearly review of the federal budget. The poor state of capital expenditure is not a new problem. Official statistics show that the government has managed to spend only 72 percent of the capital budget on average every year. The majority of capital spending takes place in the last month of the fiscal year i.e., Asar (mid-June to mid-July). The report of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) also shows that 40 percent of the total capital expenditure takes place in Asar. Experts say that there is a dire need to boost capital expenditure to take the country’s economy out of the current downturn. According to them, with the private sector investment in the economy contracting sharply this year, government expenditure is a must to revive the economy. The government expects capital expenditure of 67.91 percent of the allocated amount, according to the budget document. Overall, government expenditure is expected to remain at 83.90 percent of the allocation. A report from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) shows implementation problems of the budgetary programs. According to the report, PMO had set 1,270 activities and 2,795 milestones, besides 339 result indicators for 21 ministries to determine the implementation status of the policies and programs for the current fiscal year. As of the end of the third quarter of the current fiscal year 2022/23, only 10.39 percent of the activities have been completed, while 20.57 percent of the milestones have been achieved. Of the 356 activities in the infrastructure sector, 28 were completed, 296 are under construction and 32 have made no progress, according to the report. “One of the reasons why the government's capital expenditure has been poor this fiscal year is due to lack of resource availability,” said a government official. “Citing the lack of the resources, the government has been delaying making payment to the contractors.” During a press meet last week, the president of the Federation of Contractors’ Association of Nepal (FCAN) said that the government’s failure to make timely payments hindered the contractors’ ability to intensify the construction activities which resulted in poor capital expenditure. “The government paid as much as Rs 25bn in the past two months,” said FCAN President Rabi Singh. “The government still owes us around Rs 70bn.” The government resources were badly affected by the imposition of an import ban in April 2022 which lasted nearly eight months. A customs department official said that the customs offices could only raise as much as just over half of the targeted revenue as of mid-May. With the government failing to spend and the private sector no longer interested in taking loans from the banks citing the shrinking demands in the market, the economy is suffering badly. The government has estimated the country’s economic growth at just 2.16 percent in the current fiscal year, much lower than the projections of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Both international agencies have forecasted Nepal’s economic growth to be at 4.1 percent in the current fiscal year. Economists say that when the private sector investment dries up, it is the government that has to boost its spending. But, the government itself is facing a resource crunch and has little ability to accelerate the implementation of the development projects. But the government hasn’t yet come up with any stimulus package to boost the economy every government does when the economy is slowing. In fact, the government brought down the budget for the next fiscal year by 2.37 percent compared to the budgetary size for the current fiscal year. Even the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) also time and again hinted that the central bank alone could not be relied on to revive the economy. “Primary job of the monetary policy is to control inflation and there is not much room for the NRB to introduce loose monetary policy as inflation has continued to remain at a high level,” said a senior NRB official. According to NRB, the inflation rate stood at 7.41 percent as of mid-May. “The government should itself focus on how to accelerate the capital budget and create a conducive environment for the private sector to make investments,” the NRB official said.

The Parliamentary Finance Committee has decided to allow the Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) to move ahead with the license issuance process of new stock brokerage firms. After a discussion with the representatives of Sebon on Tuesday, the committee has given its nod to the licensing process. Seeking clarification over the issuance of licenses, the committee on June 12 instructed Sebon to suspend the process. In a meeting on June 12, the lawmakers demanded that a sub-committee should be formed to investigate the alleged irregularities in the issue of license issuance for a new stock exchange, brokerage firms, and commodity exchanges. With Tuesday’s decision, the deck has been cleared for Sebon to proceed with license issuance for new brokerage firms. The board has already issued the letter of intent (LoI) to 43 brokerage firms. The regulator had already issued licenses to 18 brokerage firms before the finance committee's June 12 instruction. The June 12 decision of the committee came under criticism as Sebon had started the licensing process following the Supreme Court’s decision. A group of new stock brokers who'd received the LoIs also strongly lobbied with the government and the political parties to break the deadlock. The lawmakers during Tuesday’s meeting appeared conciliatory with almost all of them agreeing for resuming the stalled licensing process. UML lawmaker Padam Giri who'd earlier taken a stance against the new license issuance, on Tuesday said that firms that have met the criteria should be given licenses to make the market competitive. Lawmaker Mukta Kumari Yadav opined that the finance committee cannot stop the process after the decision of the Supreme Court. The Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker and economist Swarnim Wagle said that the licensing process should be carried out transparently. Former finance minister Bishnu Paudel said that brokerage firms should be issued licenses in accordance with the law. “The finance committee should honor the decision of the Supreme Court,” he said. During Tuesday’s discussion at the finance committee, Sebon Chairman Ramesh Kumar Hamal stressed the need for additional brokerage firms in the domestic stock market. “Brokerage firms are the important stakeholders of the capital market. The new firms are being given licenses as per the need of the market. It is normal to receive a complaint when a syndicate of brokerage firms is being dismantled,” he said. The Sebon, on 18 Sept 2022, invited applications for a new stock exchange, commodity exchanges, and stock brokerage firms. However, the process stalled for five months after advocate Deepak Bikram Mishra went to the Supreme Court (SC) demanding to stop the licensing process. The licensing process was stalled after the apex court issued an interim order on 21 Oct 2022. But, the joint bench of Justices Sushma Lata Mathema and Anil Kumar Sinha in the second week of April 2023 dismissed the petition, paving the way for the Sebon to move ahead with the licensing process. Following this, the Sebon on April 13 again invited applications from interested parties for new stock exchange and commodities exchanges. According to Sebon, the new stock exchange should have a paid-up capital of Rs 3bn, of which 70 percent will be institutional investments. The licensing process for the new stock exchange has been stalled following instructions from Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.  Amid allegations from various quarters that the government was trying to grant licenses for a new stock exchange to certain businesspersons, the licensing was stopped after Prime Minister Dahal directed Sebon to halt the process in the second week of May. Three companies have applied for the new stock exchange, namely the Himalayan Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange, and Annapurna Stock Exchange. As for the license issuance for two commodities exchanges, Sebon is currently evaluating the applications of four companies.

The US Embassy in Kathmandu organized a two-day gathering of some of Nepal’s innovative digital media producers, social media influencers, and consumers called ‘Creator’s Mela: Empower, Innovate, Inspire’. Held at the Aloft Hotel in Thamel from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on June 16-17, the event featured 17 lectures and interactive sessions, as well as vendor displays, The Creator’s Mela acted as a forum for aspiring creators to learn how to develop compelling audio and visual content including podcasts, animations, vlogs, and to create their own online brands. Attendees got to learn about the necessary business and technical skills for a successful online career. There were special sessions that focused on ways creators could use social media for effective public advocacy and on the roles of women in digital spaces.  “Creativity is historically intrinsic to Nepal and its clear youth are wanting to get involved in tech and the digital space where there are so many opportunities,” said Garrett Wilkerson, US Embassy public affairs officer. He added the event was first of its-kind, the one designed to “sharpen the skills of digital creators and influencers” to launch and grow their online presence, businesses, and careers. With this event, the embassy’s goal was to emphasize that the digital space, be it podcasting, being a social media influencer or a content creator, is a great way for advocacy, democratic action, and to build platforms and career opportunities for underrepresented minorities.