Submit your Article

Bagmati Province Chief Minister Shalikram Jamarkattel won the vote of confidence on Friday. Out of 91 lawmakers presented in the Province Assembly, 67 cast votes in favor of Chief Minister Jamarkattel. A total of 17 lawmakers of the CPN-UML and the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party voted against Jamarkattel. Similarly, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party stayed neutral. Lawmakers of Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist) and Hamro Party cast votes in favor of Jamarkattel. The Bagmati Province has a total of 110 lawmakers.  

Assistant Inspector General Basanta Kunwar has been appointed as the Inspector General (IG) of Nepal Police. A Cabinet meeting held on Friday decided to appoint Kunwar to the post of IG, a minister said. Incumbent Inspector General of Police Dhiraj Pratap Singh is retiring from today. Tek Prasad Rai, Deepak Thapa, Shaym Lal Gyawali and Kiran Bajrachrya were in the race for the top post of Nepal Police.

Nepali Congress has decided to give a vote of confidence to Bagmati Province Chief Minister Shalikram Jamarkattel. Bagmati Province Congress Parliamentary Party leader Bahadur Singh Lama said that the Congress has decided to give a vote of confidence to Chief Minister Jamarkattel. Similarly, the CPN-UML has withdrawn support extended to the Bagmati Province government. It has also decided to leave the government. Addressing the Province Assembly, UML Parliamentary Party leader Jagannath Thapaliya said that his party has decided to leave the government. Chief Minister Jamarkattel is seeking a vote of confidence for the second time as per Article 188 (2) of the Constitution.

The Central Bureau of Statistics made public the complete details of the 12th National Census 2078 on Friday. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal unveiled the details amidst a program organized at the Hotel Soaltee in Kathmandu this afternoon. According to the National Census, the population of Nepal is 29,164,578. The National Planning Commission through the Central Bureau of Statistics had collected the census from November 11, 2021 to November 25, 2021.  

Digital payments that have been gradually declining every month since the start of this fiscal year have plunged to the lowest in Magh (mid-January to mid-February). According to the latest data of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), electronic transactions worth Rs 3,653.871 billion took place in the month of Magh. After five straight months of decline, digital payment had increased in Poush (mid-December to mid-January) by 12 percent. However, the growth failed to sustain as electronic payments declined by 11.86 percent in Magh. With the sharp slowdown in economic activities in the last one year, digital payments have also taken a beating in this fiscal year. The latest statistics of NRB show digital payments have been continuously shrinking from mid-July to mid-February on a month-over-month basis. Digital transactions in Nepal took a giant leap after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 which forced people to stay inside their homes during the lockdowns. Backed by the increasing use of smartphones, consumers were fast to adopt digital modes of payments and online shopping to buy daily essential items. The monthly digit payments reached an all-time high of Rs 6,227.648 billion in the last month of FY 2021/22. However, electronic transactions have been on a decline every month in this fiscal year. The NRB data shows digital payments worth Rs 5,688.626 billion took place in Shrawan (mid-July to mid-August), Rs 4,926.715 billion in Bhadra (mid-August to mid-September), Rs 4,605.316 billion in Ashoj (mid-September to mid-October), Rs 3.946.194 billion in Kartik (mid-October to mid-November) and Rs 3,697.658 billion in Mangsir (mid-November to mid-December). It increased to Rs 4145.904 billion in Poush (mid-December to mid-January) and then decreased to Rs 3653.871 billion in Magh (mid-January to mid-February). Similarly, the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) shrank to Rs 2,295.804 billion in Magh (mid-January to mid-February) from Rs 4,349 billion in Ashar (mid-June to mid-July). In the meantime, cash withdrawals from automated teller machines (ATMs) declined to Rs 77.041 billion during the review period from Rs 79.459 billion in Ashar. Transactions made through the point of sales (POS) also decreased to Rs 3.88 billion from Rs 5.183 billion earlier. However, mobile banking transactions increased to Rs 172.119 billion from Rs 162.255 billion. Similarly, Quick Response (QR) payments increased to Rs 17.765 billion from Rs 14.526 billion. Digital payments were on an increasing trend till the last fiscal year. This trend has reversed in the current fiscal year. Bankers and experts point out the current economic slowdown for this. According to them, the spending capacity of consumers has been hard hit by rising inflation resulting in a decline in digital payments. Guru Prasad Paudel, Chief of the Payment System Department at NRB says the decline in digital payments is a reflection of the contraction in economic activities. "The decline in payments through RTGS has led to a decrease in overall digital transactions," said Paudel. Electronic Payment Transactions

Xiaomi Nepal has announced the pre-booking of the flagship smartphone, Xiaomi 13 Pro. The Xiaomi 13 Pro is the Pro variant of the Xiaomi 13 series that was launched globally on February 26, 2023. Xiaomi 13 Pro is co-engineered with Leica camera for creating masterpiece in every environment. The phone offers master-level photography with pro-grade Leica lenses. Equipped with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is a premium flagship phone flaunting a minimalistic design and best-in-class display. Equipped with 120W Hyper Charge and a 4,820mAh battery, the smartphone is able to charge to 100 percent in just 19 minutes. The Xiaomi 13 Pro has a 6.73-inch 10-bit QHD+ AMOLED display with a 3200 x 1440 resolution. The phone has an aluminum frame and a curved ceramic glass back. It comes up with a square camera module to house three cameras, a flash, and Leica branding. The phone is rated IP68 for water and dust resistance. One of the major features of the phone is a triple camera setup jointly developed with German camera company Leica. The primary camera has a large 1-inch 50MP Sony IMX98 sensor with OIS and a 23mm ƒ/1.9 Leica lens. The 50MP telephoto camera has a 75mm equivalent focal length (3x zoom), ƒ/2.0 aperture, and OIS. The phone has a 4820mAh single-cell battery. The phone supports 120W Xiaomi HyperCharge fast charging technology and 50W wireless charging. As a bundle offer, Xiaomi Nepal is offering a Xiaomi 50W wireless charging stand with the pre-booking of Xiaomi 13 Pro. The pre-booking starts from March 23 to April 3, 2023. “We believe our success is a result of the love that we received from our Xiaomi fans. This offer is only a step to thank our Xiaomi and encourage them to keep loving our Xiaomi products," said Amit Kumar Panda, the Country General Manager of Xiaomi Nepal. Customers can buy Xiaomi 13 Pro at 0 percent EMI offer from Nabil Bank. The Xiaomi 13 Pro will be available in 12+256GB variant in two color options- Ceramic White and Ceramic Black. One can pre-book Xiaomi 13 Pro in just Rs5000. The price of Xiaomi 13 Pro is Rs. 1,29,999 and will be available in all Mi stores across the country soon.

Eight years after it first announced funds for startups, the government has finally issued the procedure to provide financing for such businesses. The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply on Sunday issued the long-awaited 'Startup Enterprise Loan Fund Procedure 2079' which will enable startups to get loans from the government at subsidized interest rates. This has paved the way for startups to get loans up to Rs 2.5 million at an interest rate of three percent for a maximum period of seven years. While the government has issued the procedure, whether it will come into implementation is still a million-dollar question. For the past eight years, the government made announcements for startups but failed to bring them to implementation. In the budget for the fiscal year 2015/16, the government announced a Rs 500 million fund to groom startups and innovators. Again, in FY 2019/20, the government announced a cash subsidy of up to Rs 5 million for promising new businesses. While the government did some work in this regard, the work procedure did not see the light of day. In FY 2020/21, the government again formed a Rs 500 million startup fund to issue loans at a two percent interest rate. The National Planning Commission was designated as the agency to implement the fund. However, the plan to provide loans to startups at subsidized interest rates got stalled. In the federal budget of FY 2021/22, the government provisioned a fund of Rs 1 billion for startup promotion. With loan procedure 2079 coming into effect, the Startup Enterprise Implementation Committee led by the Director General of the Department of Industry will invite proposals from interested entrepreneurs and prepare details of the proposed projects for loans. The committee will have representation from the Company Registrar's Office, Nepal Rastra Bank, and the private sector. The committee has been mandated to evaluate the business projects and recommend them to the central bank for lending. NRB will authorize certain banks for the disbursing loans for startup entrepreneurs. As per the procedure, such loans will be provided in two installments based on the recommendation of the Startup Enterprise Implementation Committee. In the first installment, entrepreneurs will get 50 percent of the loan amount. The designated banks have to sign an agreement with startup entrepreneurs within three days of the NRB recommendation. And, the entrepreneur will receive the first installment of the loan within three working days of signing the agreement. The loan procedure has set certain criteria for getting the loans. Businesses that have not exceeded seven years of establishment or operation of an enterprise or business can get loan facilities. Similarly, the paid-up capital of the startup business or enterprise should not be more than Rs 5 million, the total income of the enterprise should not be more than Rs 5 million per annum, the fixed capital (excluding the value of land and house) should not exceed more than Rs 20 million and the number of full-time workers in the enterprise should not be more than 10. According to the procedure, such loans will be provided to start-up entrepreneurs involved in agriculture and animal husbandry, tourism, communication, IT, and the education sector.

While the country's imports have started to surge again, Nepal's exports are yet to grow like in the last fiscal year. The country's exports in Falgun (mid-February to mid-March) have been recorded as the lowest on a month-over-month basis in this fiscal year. In Falgun, Nepal exported goods worth Rs 11.363 billion. Thanks to the massive surge in the exports of edible oils, the country's overall exports expanded by a whopping 82.90 percent to Rs 147.74 billion in the eight months of the last fiscal year 2021/22. However, the exports have declined by 29.07 percent to Rs 104.79 billion during the same period of the current fiscal year. As Nepal’s export of soybean and palm oils which became major exportable items in the last few years, decreased sharply, the country's overall exports have fallen sharply in FY 2022/23. Nepal's exports reached an all-time high of Rs 200 billion in FY 2021/22. The country's exports crossed the Rs 100 billion mark in the eighth month of the current fiscal year. According to the Department of Customs, the massive decline in the exports of edible oils has dragged down the country's overall exports this year. The export of soybean oil has plunged to Rs 8.37 billion in this fiscal year from Rs 41.40 billion in the last fiscal year while the export of palm oil has fallen to Rs 15.18 billion this year from Rs 41.33 billion in the last fiscal. Soybean oil and palm oil emerged as Nepal's main export items in the past few years, primarily due to tariff exemptions on Nepali exports to India under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement. However, exports of edible oils suffered in this fiscal after India lowered its customs tariff after Russia's invasion of Ukraine pushed international prices of edible oils higher. The exports of carpet, cardamom, felt, and juice have surged in this fiscal. Nepal's carpet exports reached Rs 7.38 billion in this fiscal compared to Rs 5.89 billion in the last fiscal year. The export of cardamom has also increased this fiscal year. The country exported cardamom worth Rs 5.86 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal compared to Rs 3.25 billion during the same period of the last fiscal. Monthly Exports