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The price of gold has increased by Rs 200 per tola in the domestic market on Monday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 111, 000 per tola today. The gold was traded at Rs 110,800 per tola on Sunday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 110, 450 per tola. It was traded at Rs 110, 250 per tola. Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,375 per tola today.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and National Assembly (NA) Chairperson Ganesh Prasad Timilsina held a meeting on Monday. During the meeting held at the Prime Minister's official residence in Baluwatar, this morning, they discussed the current budget session of the federal Parliament and joint session of the Parliament for the presentation of government's policies and programs for the upcoming fiscal year.  

Nepal could discuss with Bangladesh to bring India into the development of the 683 MW Sunkoshi III Hydropower Project so as to ease the hurdles in power trade between Nepal and Bangladesh. Nepali officials who’ve reached Dhaka for the fifth meeting of the joint-secretary-level Joint Working Group and secretary-level Joint Steering Committee meetings between Nepal and Bangladesh, hinted they could discuss with the Bangladeshi side in this respect. The two-day meeting will start on May 15. However, the officials didn’t immediately confirm whether they would propose Bangladesh for involving the southern neighbor to develop the hydel project but said that discussion could be held regarding the matter. Nepal and Bangladesh have already agreed to develop the Sunkoshi III through a joint venture investment during the fourth meeting of the working group and a joint steering committee held in late August 2022. Nepal has not formally spoken to Bangladesh about bringing India into the development of the Sunkoshi III project. But Nepali officials believe involving India could help to break the deadlock over power export from Nepal to Bangladesh. “We have not yet discussed with Bangladesh about involving India to develop this project,” said a senior official of the energy ministry. “It is our thought that involving the Indian side would help to break the ice for the trilateral deal.” According to officials, there have been discussions within the Energy Ministry to involve India in the project. In the fourth meeting, both sides agreed that Nepal would provide an environmental impact assessment report of the Sunkoshi III project to the Bangladeshi side and later would respond with its opinion. The two sides also agreed to move forward with the process of establishing a joint venture company to develop the project. “As agreed in the last meeting, we have sent the feasibility study report and environmental impact assessment report of Sunkoshi III to Bangladesh,” said Madhu Bhetuwal, spokesperson at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation. During the meeting, the two sides will discuss bringing India on board for a trilateral agreement to ensure that Nepal and Bangladesh could trade electricity through the Indian territory. Both sides have made efforts at the highest level since Bangladesh, as an energy-hungry country, is seeking to diversify its energy sources. Bangladesh also wants to increase the share of clean energy in its energy mix and it has targeted electricity import from Nepal and Bhutan as a major priority for the purpose. Though Nepal and Bangladesh are not far away, they are not geographically connected. The two countries can trade electricity only through Indian territory. That’s why, bringing India on board for this purpose is very important. In recent years, India has been eager to forge power sector partnerships with Nepal and Bangladesh. According to the Joint Vision Statement on Power Sector Cooperation between Nepal and India issued in April last year, the two countries agreed to widen collaboration in the power sector and include partner nations under Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal (BBIN) framework. As a token, Nepal and Bangladesh last year agreed to request India for the passage of 40-50MW of electricity from Nepal to Bangladesh through the existing transmission infrastructure of India. Both sides have been making efforts to bring India on board for this purpose. But they are yet to secure a nod from the southern neighbor. “There will be further discussions on the matter based on each other countries’ discussions with the Indian side,” the energy ministry official said.

Established in 2009, eSewa is Nepal’s pioneering digital payment service provider. In the last 14 years of its operation, eSewa has remained at the top of the business offering a range of digital payment services that have helped change the lives of many Nepalis. ApEx talked to the company’s CEO Jagdish Khadka about the current state of the mobile wallet business, challenges, and eSewa’s plans. Excerpts: How do you observe the changes that have occurred in fintech in Nepal since eSewa started its services 14 years ago? eSewa started its journey in 2009. But there were a few rules and regulations for the online payment system at that time. In 2016, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) implemented guidelines related to payment service providers which paved a clear path for digital financial services in the country. Since 2016, there have been several developments in the realm of digital financial services. The number of digital transactions has increased tremendously. Recently, NRB has stated that digital payment has decreased the cost of disposing of older banknotes. Similarly, fintech has helped propel the inclusion of underbanked and unbanked people in the last few years. NRB's latest report states that there are around 16.75m active digital wallet users in Nepal. These days, people can carry on with their lives even if they don’t carry banknotes, which is the biggest change that we are seeing today. Likewise, the number of players in the fintech sector has also grown increasing the competition which has fostered innovation in the market. How is eSewa’s mobile wallet business currently? What is the market share? Only five percent of the national economy has been digitalized to date. And in that, we hold around 75 percent of the digital transaction which means eSewa has been the industry leader. This has benefitted not only our merchants and agents but also the end-users. Our initiatives such as raising digital payment awareness of Nepalis, educating the users and agents, and motivating merchants to get integrated into digital payment have contributed a lot. It is said that there is less profit margin in the mobile wallet business. What is the case with eSewa?  The entire digital business works with unit economics meaning volume is needed to thrive in business. This is the only way mobile wallets have survived worldwide and so similar is the case in Nepal. The more services companies integrate, the more users they can have. Similarly, the more merchants they have, the more business they can get The growing number of mobile wallets in Nepal has raised questions about their survival. Do you see the prospect of mergers and acquisitions between digital payment service providers? If the existing players have inefficiency, there will always be room for betterment. This means, there is always a space for new players in the market. As I said earlier that only five percent of the economy has been digitized, all are contributing to the journey of digitalization and the players are contributing in their own way in the economy. Given this situation, companies can survive if they can perform better. How do you see the future of fintech companies in Nepal? Will they be able to get foreign direct investments (FDIs)? NRB recently introduced a policy where now payment service providers and payment service operators can have up to 15 percent of their paid-up capital as FDI. So, fintech companies can bring FDIs. eSewa is also doing great in remittance. Though eSewa remit doesn’t come under my watch, what I can say is in a short period of time, we are in second position in Nepal in terms of bringing remittances. How do you see the scope of the field of digital finance from a career development point of view? Fintech has a great future. There will be no industry that will be impacted by technology. Everything is getting integrated with technology. There is still much to be done in fintech in Nepal. We are just in payment systems but there are many aspects including credit, savings, lending, insurance, investment, and finance that are yet to be developed. I think fintech and digital platforms will be the most efficient channels in this regard in the future. Similarly, there is a big scope for the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in fintech. Many new things will come up and career prospects are definitely good in this field. We have been hearing about the quality of customer services of eSewa lately. How is the company working to better handle the complaints of customers? eSewa has come up with new app features to serve customers better. We get around 11,000 phone calls per day. Our front-line staff are there to attend calls to solve issues of the users. Recently, we integrated an in-built feature in our app which allows users to note their queries so that they don’t have to call us over the phone. We are working more on it. They can lodge their complaints and check whether the problems have been solved or not. We are also planning to introduce a chatbot with instant customer service in the future.  

Police on Sunday arrested former deputy prime minister and CPN-UML leader Top Bahadur Rayamajhi in connection with the fake Bhutanese refugee scam, 11 days after an arrest warrant was issued against him. Rayamajhi had been absconding since May 4 after the Kathmandu District Court issued an arrest warrant against him and his son Sandeep. Police have already apprehended Sandeep for his alleged involvement in the case. According to police, Rayamajhi was detained from Budhanilkantha, Kathmandu at around 9 pm yesterday. “We got information that Rayamajhi came to Kathmandu on Saturday,” a police official involved in the investigation said, adding, “We arrested him on Sunday evening.” The UML secretary is accused of helping forge government documents to send Nepalis to the United States in the guise of Bhutanese refugees. Police have already nabbed Tek Narayan Pandey, the secretary at the Office of the Vice President, and Indrajit Rai, who served as a security adviser to former home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, in connection with the scam. Earlier, police had arrested Sagar Thulung from Morang, Tanka Gurung from Panchthar, and Sandesh Sharma from Dang. Sanu Bhandari, an aide of Rayamajhi, and Keshav Dulal, the former personal secretary of Nepali Congress leader Sujata Koirala, were also held based on complaints filed by various people.    

My name is Spandan Roka Magar. After passing my grade eight from my village I came to Kathmandu. More than my wish, my father desires to admit me to a good school in Kathmandu City, the capital of Nepal. Now, I am pleased to be here at Neric Academy. It is like a dreamland for newcomers who are like me. My principal, Mana Khatri, is our class teacher. He teaches us a new subject Samajik Adhyan. I called it new because we were studying social studies in junior grades in English medium. It was suitable for us in English but when it came in Nepali, it became very difficult for us. The terms we could understand in English are not comprehensible to us in Nepali. And, we forget them in a very short period. To teach this subject, a teacher needs knowledge and skills both at once. On the one hand, I was from the village. So my English was not so good. On the other hand, Social Studies was in Nepali, and my Nepali writing and reading were also not excellent. Because of my ethnic background also, I was lacking behind in my studies, in my opinion. The first day, when I came to Neric Academy, I was in a dilemma; whether to go to the classroom or not. In the school with a large compound I was feeling lonely, despite my auntie and uncle being there to drop me off. Once the Assembly got over, I looked outside from the Principal’s office window. I found some friends who were taking baskets and roaming around the school grounds. Some of the others were in the garden side and junior blocks. They were collecting rappers, papers, and pebbles. They were quite excited. Later I watched the walls of the school building, they were fully decorated and full of popular decorations. Among them, I read one, “If you want to reach the honey, make a company of bees. And, if you want to reach the garbage, make a company of flies.” Then I immediately decided to go to the class. When I reached the classroom, I could not feel it was the classroom. It was like my home. The walls were full of traditional items like; Dali, Doko, Namlo, Madani, Kodalo, Madal, Damphu, Halo, Juwa, Kucho, Chimta, and so on. Wow! I loved the class. It was a unique way of decorating the classroom. It was like a heritage in reality. Later, I talked to my friends, and they said that all were collected by the students of grade nine. I found them very cooperative. Even in the subject discussion, project works, assignment correction, and games and sports, they were (are) supportive. I felt it was the school I was looking for. I thanked my dad by heart! In comparison to my previous school, it is a bit strict in discipline. It does not make us only memorize the lines of books, it involves us in daily activities. It encourages us to take risks and responsibilities. It teaches us to be accountable too through assembly conductions, house wall magazines, classroom decorations, games and sports, projects, and programs. I also took part in assembly conductions and school prefects and election processes. Now, I feel I have been receiving sufficient exposure to sharpen my mind, fill my heart and develop my thoughts. Finally, I must say thank you to my Dad, uncle and auntie once again. Your contribution will be my success! Thank you once again to Neric Academy. Name: Spandan Roka Magar Neric Academy, Shankhamul Grade: 9

Major political parties have agreed to take ahead the transitional justice bill by forming a parliamentary sub-committee. A meeting of the parliamentary party leaders and chief whips of Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre) held in Baluwatar on Sunday agreed to form a sub-committee to take ahead the Truth and Reconciliation Bill. CPN (Maoist Center) Chief Whip Hitraj Pandey said that the meeting focused on making the ongoing Parliament session effective and forming various committees. The meeting also discussed forming the Parliamentary Hearing Committee. Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka, Maoist Center Chief Whip Hitraj Pandey, Nepali Congress Chief Whip Ramesh Lekhak and UML leader Subash Nembang were present in the meeting.

The gold is being traded at Rs 110, 800 per tola in the domestic market on Sunday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 110, 250 per tola. Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1, 375 per tola today.