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Saraswoti Nepali, who has been pitching for the rights of the marginalized communities in Nepal, has received the United States Department of State's 'Global Anti-Racism Champions Award (GARC)' for this year.

The Kathmandu-based US Embassy said that the award has been conferred on Nepali as the Chairperson of Dalit Samaj Bikas Munch in recognition of her more than two-decade advocacy for the human rights of excluded groups, poor and people with disability in Nepal.

It has been learnt that many Dalit families of rural western districts of Nepal have obtained legal right over the land ownership as a result of her efforts.

Chairperson Nepali has won several cases against the caste-based discrimination in the pursuit of justice.

Her contribution to the campaign of dignity and equality is an epitome of courage and dedication.

The death toll from recent flooding in and around China’s capital Beijing has risen to 33, including five rescuers, while 18 other people remain missing, officials said, as much of the country’s north remains threatened by ongoing heavy rainfall, Aljazeera reported.

Record downpours have hit China’s capital in recent weeks, damaging infrastructure and deluging swaths of the city’s suburbs and surrounding areas.

Officials said on Wednesday that 33 people had died and 18 others were missing after the recent bad weather in Beijing, mainly due to flooding and buildings collapsing.

Days of heavy rain hit areas in Beijing’s mountainous western outskirts especially hard, causing the collapse of 59,000 homes, damage to almost 150,000 others and flooding of more than 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of cropland, the city’s government said on Wednesday.

Many roads were also damaged, along with more than 100 bridges, Xia Linmao, a Beijing vice mayor, said at a news conference, according to Aljazeera.

“I would like to express my deep condolences to those who died in the line of duty and the unfortunate victims,” Linmao told reporters, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said Typhoon Doksuri hit China more than a week ago but the extent of the devastation brought by flooding and building collapses is emerging only now.

“This is the worst natural disaster to high the capital in years. The last time a storm of this scale occurred was in 2012,” Yu said, noting that areas hit hardest more than a decade ago – when almost 80 people died – were against the worst affected by the recent typhoon.

“Difficult questions are now being raised as to why lessons from that previous storm were not learned, and why buildings and roads were not reinforced, and why this damage has happened yet again,” Yu said.

Other parts of China have also seen heavy flooding, with many reported killed by flood waters across northern China, which has been battered by heavy rain since late July, disrupting the lives of millions.

Officials in Beijing said last week that 147 deaths or disappearances last month were caused by natural disasters. Of those, 142 were caused by flooding or other geological calamities, China’s Ministry of Emergency Management said, Aljazeera reported.

In Hebei province, which neighbours Beijing, 15 were reported to have died and 22 were missing. And in northeastern Jilin, 14 died and one person was reported missing on Sunday.

Further north in Heilongjiang, state media reported that dozens of rivers had seen water levels rise above “warning markers” in recent days.

China’s deadliest and most destructive floods in recent history were in 1998, when 4,150 people died, most of them along the Yangtze River.

In 2021, more than 300 people died in the central province of Henan. Record rainfall inundated the provincial capital of Zhengzhou in July of that year, turning streets into rushing rivers and flooding at least part of a subway line.

Other areas in China are also suffering from the scorching summer heat and drought, which is threatening residents’ health and crop harvest.

Police have nabbed two persons for sexually harassing a juvenile through social media.

The Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police made public Samir Tamang and Suresh Tamang of Indrawati Municipality in Sindhupalchowk for sexually harassing a minor girl through social networking sites.

The duo had befriended the juvenile through Facebook and were falsely trapped in a love affair. 

Later, they were found to have morphed the photo of the minor girl with lewd pictures, circulating them across the social networking sites.

They were also charged with torturing the girl through video-calls, said Spokesperson and Superintendent of Police (SP), Pashupati Kumar Ray.

In a case filed in the District Court, Kathmandu against the duo demanding maximum action against them under the Electronic Transaction Act-2063 BS, the court remanded both accused in custody for five days for further investigation.

The Chinese government is to give 21 drones to the Nepal Police.

A Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday decided to accept 21 drones provided by the Chinese government.

The Public Security Department of Tibet has decided to provide 21 drones to the Home Ministry.

Chinese ambassador Chen Song on May 8 had informed Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha the Chinese government had decided to provide the drones to Nepal.

The Chinese government had decided to provide drones to Nepal government to monitor the border area.

The Home Ministry is preparing to give the drones to the security agency.

The main opposition party CPN-UML obstructed the House proceedings today as well.

As soon as the meeting began, the UML lawmakers stood from their respective seats as a gesture of protest.

All the agenda of the meeting has been removed following the obstruction.

UML lawmaker Surya Bahadur Thapa Chhetri demanded that the government form a high-level probe committee to investigate the gold smuggling case.

The ruling party lawmakers too stood from their respective seats when Chhetri was expressing his views. 

Speaker Devraj Ghimire requested the lawmakers to take their seats.

The UML lawmakers picketed the rostrum and started sloganeering after the ruling parties' MPs stood from their seats.

The CPN-UML has been demanding the formation of a probe committee to investigate the smuggling in of 100 kgs gold that had passed undetected through Tribhuvan International Airport on July 18.

In the meeting, Speaker Ghimire had urged the UML lawmakers to cooperate in the operation of the House business as discussions are on from various angles on the topic related to the gold smuggling scam and the Home Minister has already briefed the House about this matter.

"Parliament is the forum for raising people's voices. There are several issues like incidents of floods and landslides, among other topics, to be raised in Parliament at present," the Speaker reminded the lawmakers.

Today's meeting of the House has been postponed after the UML lawmakers continued the obstruction and sloganeering despite the Speaker's requests to allow the House to carry out its business.

The next meeting of the House of Representatives has been scheduled for 1 pm on Friday.

Doctors at Nepalgunj Medical College Teaching Hospital have removed a one kilogram tumor from the uterus of a female patient. The surgery was performed by a team led by gynecologist Dr Yubaraj Karki.

“Her tumor weighed 1.7 kg. There were other 10-12 tumors of 10 grams to 300 grams. All of them have been removed by surgery,” said Dr Karki. 

The patient, who hails from Rajapur Municipality, Bardiya, had been living with the tumors for the past five years at least. Doctors in Kathmandu had discovered a tumor in her body during an ultrasound examination four years earlier. 

“The doctors had said that there was a tumor when I was pregnant with my son. The stomach used to ache when the child was growing inside me. My lower abdomen used to ache a lot,” recalled the woman.

She was advised to undergo a surgery to get her tumor removed, but she could not afford the fee at the time. She finally decided to seek medical help after suffering severe stomach pain and profuse menstrual bleeding. Considering her financial background, the hospital decided to perform the surgery for free. The Annapurna Post, sister publication of The Annapurna Express, also played a crucial role to facilitate her surgery. 

“I got a new life after the surgery,” said the woman, thanking everyone who helped her get a free surgery.  

Kumar Adhikari, head of the hospital administration, said in case of poor patients, the hospital has been conducting surgeries with discounts ranging from 10 percent to 100 percent.

He also informed that the hospital has given free health services to 9,171 people from Banke, Bardia, Kailali, Dang and Surkhet districts in the fiscal year 2022/23.
“We gave discounts worth Rs 26.5m on surgeries, health checkups, ICU, NICU, beds and medicines in the fiscal year 2022/23,” said Adhikari.  

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 41.06 points to close at 2,060.91 points on Wednesday.

Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 7.48 points to close at 393. 05 points.

A total of 5,010,716-unit shares of 265 companies were traded for Rs 1. 88 billion.

Meanwhile, Himalayan Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 9. 83 percent.

Likewise, Century Debenture 2088 was the top loser as its price fell by 9.99 percent.

At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 05 trillion.

With a significant surge in non-performing loans (NPL), commercial banks find themselves in a difficult position when it comes to distributing dividends to their shareholders from the profits of the last fiscal year. 

In the last fiscal year, while banks’ net profit surged by 25.03 percent, their distributable profit declined by 26 percent as they have to set aside a significant amount for regulatory adjustment. The profit of the banks reached Rs 70.17bn, but their distributable profit, which they can distribute to the shareholders, is only Rs 31.9bn. 

As per the unaudited reports of the banks, the average dividend ratio for commercial banks has declined by two percent points to 11.51 percent. This is in contrast to the 13.51 percent in the fiscal year 2021/22.  The dividend ratio may come down further after the final audit, according to bankers.

In the past few years, there has been a decline in the ability of banks to distribute dividends. The most significant capacity for dividend distribution by banks in the past decade occurred during the fiscal year 2012/13, reaching 22.25 percent.

In FY 2021/22, the distributable profit of banks stood at Rs 29.46bn, which was even lower than that of FY 2022/23. However, banks' dividend distribution capacity was higher than the last fiscal year.

Bankers attribute the decline in dividend distribution capacity to rising NPL and surge in provisioning amount. Krishna Bahadur Adhikari, the CEO of Nepal Bank, said that the reduction in dividend capacity can be attributed to the recent economic downturn. “The economic crisis has led to difficulties in recovering loan interests. And, a significant amount has to be set aside for provisioning for the bad loans,” said Adhikari. 

The unaudited financial report of the 20 commercial banks for the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year shows NPLs of all have surged in FY 2022/23 compared to FY 2021/22. The NPLs of banks have reached 2.8 percent, marking a staggering increase of 122.22 percent compared to FY 2021/22. The NPL of commercial banks stood at 1.26 percent in FY 2021/22.

With the sharp rise in NPLs, the loan loss provisions of banks have also increased. As per the unaudited financial reports for the fourth quarter, the amount for provisioning has increased by 94.37 percent. Banks have set aside Rs 25.93 bn for loan loss provisions till mid-July, 2023 compared to Rs 13.34bn during the same period of the last fiscal year. The total provisioning of banks increased by Rs 12.59bn in the last 12 months.

Banks have been experiencing a progressive decline in their capability to distribute dividends following increments in their paid-up capital. Over the recent years, banks have been augmenting their paid-up capital through mergers, acquisitions, and issuing bonus shares as dividend payments. Nevertheless, the growth in income and profits of these banks has not matched the proportional increase in capital. Sudesh Khaling, the CEO of Everest Bank, explains that due to this phenomenon, banks are facing a situation of reduced average dividend capacity.

According to Khaling, distributing the bonus shares of banks means automatically reducing the dividend capacity for the next year. “In the past few years, banks focused on giving bonus shares. They (banks), however, have not been able to earn income and profit, which has resulted in the weakening of their dividend distribution capacity,” said Khaling. 

Khaling said that when banks distribute bonus shares, they effectively decrease their dividend capacity for the following year. He noted that over recent years, banks have primarily emphasized providing bonus shares. “However, banks have struggled to generate income and profits, leading to a decline in their ability to distribute dividends,” said Khaling.

According to Nepal Financial Accounting Standard (NFRS), uncollected interest should also be reported as income, so there has been a significant increase in the net interest income of most banks. However, due to a non-recovery of the interest at the end of mid-July, the banks are under pressure when it comes to distributable profits.

Amongst the commercial banks, Everest Bank stands out with the capacity to offer the most substantial dividend payout derived from the earnings of the previous fiscal year. It has the potential to allocate dividends of up to 40.5 percent to its shareholders. The NIC Asia Bank can distribute dividends of 31.98 percent from the profit of the last fiscal year. Standard Chartered Bank Nepal can provide dividends of up to 28.99 percent.

Notably, both Kumari Bank and Himalayan Bank will be unable to distribute dividends for the preceding fiscal year due to their negative distributable profits.