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The Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi has launched Redmi Note 12 and Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G in the Nepali market. According to Xiaomi Nepal, equipped with a Snapdragon685 mobile platform, the Redmi Note 12 provides a seamless and efficient multitasking experience in photography, gaming, audio, and streaming. Whereas Redmi 12 Pro 5G is powered by the Mediatek Dimensity 1080 processor which delivers impressive reliable performance for content creation, gaming, and 5G connectivity. The Redmi Note12 Pro 5G comes with a powerful 5,000mAh battery allowing the users extended use without worrying about running out of charge. The Redmi Note12 Pro 5G also features flagship 67 Turbocharging that charges the phone in 15 minutes. Similarly, the RedmiNote 12 has a 5,000mAh battery. The Redmi Note 12 has a flat frame and back design. The phone is available in three color variants: onyx gray, ice blue, and mint green. It features a 6.67-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate. The display has a punch-hole design notch for the front camera. It has a triple camera setup at the rear comprising a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultrawide camera, and a 2MP macro camera. The phone has a 13MP selfie camera. The Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G offers an exclusive high-end phone featuring an IMX766 sensor. With this incredibly versatile and trusted camera sensor, coupled with its1.0μm native large pixel size, the Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G easily captures more light and produces high quality, brighter and clearer pictures in all scenarios. The Redmi Note 12 Pro comes in three color options: midnight black, polar white, and ice blue. The phone has a 10-bit 6.67-inch OLED display that supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+. It is a full HD+ display with up to 120Hz refresh rate support. The phone has a triple rear camera setup at the back which includes a 50MP Sony IMX766 primary camera with OIS accompanied by an 8MP ultrawide and a 2MP macro camera. “At Redmi, our consumers are at the heart of everything we do which drives us to constantly work towards democratizing technology hence making it more accessible," said Amit Panda, Country General Manager of Xiaomi Nepal. "Our newly launched Redmi Note 12 series will make flagship-level specs more accessible, raising industry standards and bringing our core philosophy of offering innovation at incredibly honest pricing to life. The Redmi Note 12 series is packed with incredible battery life, amazing camera setup, and powerful performance.” Box Redmi Note 12 Model                            Price 4GB+128GB           Rs 22,999 6GB+128GB           Rs 24,999 8GB+128GB           Rs 26,999 Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G 6GB+128GB           Rs 38,999 8GB+256GB           Rs 41,999

With the government mulling handing over the development of the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), a task force has been formed to finalize the share structure of Budhi Gandaki Jalbidhyut Public Limited. The task force led by NEA Deputy Executive Director Pradeep Kumar Thike will revise the share structure of Budhi Gandaki Jalbidhyut Public Limited to give a majority stake in the company to the government-owned power utility. Energy Secretary Dinesh Kumar Ghimire while welcoming the newly appointed Ministry for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Shakti Basnet at NEA on Monday, the share of the company is being restructured as per the instruction of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to advance the much-hyped hydropower project. The government in the last fiscal year decided to build the reservoir-type project on its own and established Budhi Gandaki Jalbidhyut Public Limited for the development of the 12,00MW project. However, the company is yet to come into operation as the government has not provided the budget to get approval for commencement from the Office of the Company Registrar (OCR).   As of now, the authorized capital of Budhi Gandaki company is Rs 20 billion. The Energy Ministry has a 50 percent stake in the company while the Finance Ministry and NEA have 30 percent and 20 percent stakes, respectively. According to NEA, it has the technical expertise on developing big projects but it wants a majority stake in the newly established company. The share structure of the company will be restructured based on the report of the Thike-led task force. As developing storage-type projects is quite expensive compared to the run of the river-type projects, a viability gap funding is likely to be required from the government to develop this project, according to NEA. Budhi Gandaki is a ready-to-go project as its detailed project report (DPR) has already been prepared. Compensation distribution for the land acquisition and houses has also been in the final stage, according to Energy Ministry officials. The project which has been touted as important to ensuring Nepal's energy security as it is expected to help the country to be self-reliant even during the dry season has been in limbo for a long due to uncertainty over the modality of its development. Earlier, Budhigandaki fell victim to policy inconsistency despite facing hardly any problem in land acquisition and completion of DPR. In 2017, the then government led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal awarded a contract to build the project without competitive bidding to China Gezhouba Group Corporation under the engineering, procurement, construction, and financing (EPCF) modality. The Sher Bahadur Deuba-led administration in November 2017 overturned the earlier government’s decision. A high-level team led by Swarnim Wagle, former Vice-chair of the National Planning Commission, was then established. The committee suggested that the project could also be developed using domestic resources. Again, in September 2018, the government led by KP Sharma Oli decided in favor of the Chinese company, reversing the decision of the Deuba-led government. In April of last year, the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government once more decided to terminate the license granted to the Chinese company since it was not making any progress on the project. Budhi Gandaki, which will be Nepal's second and the largest reservoir-type hydel project with an estimated cost of USD 2.6 billion, is situated at the boundary between the districts of Gorkha and Dhading. The report prepared by the committee headed by Wagle in 2017 suggested that the government should develop the project on its own by providing viability gap funding, covering around one-third of the project development cost. As per its report, the government could cover the cost of land acquisition and resettlement of displaced families which could total as high as Rs 94 billion. A significant chunk of resources can be generated from government institutions. An infrastructure tax being imposed on imported fuel could be an important source of revenue that can be used to develop the project. According to the Wagle report, public enterprises such as Nepal Electricity Authority, Employees Provident Fund, Nepal Telecom, Rastriya Beema Sansthan, Hydroelectric Investment and Development Company, Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Company, Chilime Hydropower Company, along with Nepal Army, Nepal Police, and the general public could be tapped for the project.

The price of gold has increased by Rs 2, 000 per tola in the domestic market on Wednesday. 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 109, 000 per tola on Tuesday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 110, 450 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has increased by Rs 40 and is being traded at Rs 1,440 per tola today.

Seven persons including three Nepalis died in an avalanche at Chomgo in East Sikkim of India. According to a statement issued by the Sikkim government, the avalanche hit the Gangtok Natula JNM road at 11:10 am on Tuesday. The deceased Nepalis have been identified as Shiva Prasad Lamichhane and Ashika Dhakal (22) of Chitwan and Muna Sah (29) of Rupandehi. Similarly, Shaurav Raya Chaudhary (29), Pritam Matte (38) of West Bengal, Bal Singh (32) and six-year-old Rebika Singh also died in the incident, SP Tenzing Loden Lepcha of Sikkim said. All of them were tourists. Likewise, three Nepalis were injured in the incident. The injured have been identified as Gita Sapkota (40), Jyoti Gurung (38) and Ramesh Khanal (43). They are undergoing treatment at the Gangtok-based STNM Hospital.    

Former President Donald Trumppleaded not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges of falsifying business records in Manhattan criminal court Tuesday afternoon, CNN reported.

Trump surrendered and was placed under arrest Tuesday before he was arraigned in a historic and unprecedented court appearance, in which the former president heard the charges against him for the first time. While the arraignment was routine, the case is now poised to linger over Trump's 2024 candidacy as he fights the charges both in court and in public.

Prosecutors alleged that Trump sought to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election through a hush money scheme with payments made to women who claimed they had extramarital affairs with Trump. He has denied the affairs.

Trump was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including an illegal payment of $130,000 that was ordered by the defendant to suppress the negative information that would hurt his campaign, prosecutors alleged.

Trump "repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election," according to the charging documents.

After the arraignment, Trump immediately flew back to Florida. He held an event with his supporters Tuesday evening at his Mar-a-Lago resort, where Trump made his public case against the indictment and previewed how he intends to fight against the charges politically as he runs again for the White House in 2024.

While he was warned by Judge Juan Merchan during Tuesday's arraignment not to make comments that could "jeopardize the rule of law" or create civil unrest, Trump railed later that evening against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the judge himself, according to CNN.

"I never thought anything like this could happen in America, never thought it could happen. The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it," Trump said.

"It's an insult to our country," he added.

The indictment returned last week by a grand jury against Trump was unsealed Tuesday and provided the public -- and Trump's legal team -- with the first details about the specific charges he will face.

The indictment was quickly criticized by Trump's Republican allies, and even some legal experts raised questions about the case. CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig said that prosecutors will have to make their case that Trump committed felonies and not misdemeanors by showing that the falsified records were used to conceal another crime, which was not identified in the indictment.

"One of the complicated legal questions here is in order to bump that up from a misdemeanor to a felony you have to show that those records were falsified to commit some other crime, some second crime," Honig said. "You heard the defense lawyers, I think, rightly, complaining about that."

Bragg said at a news conference after the arraignment that the indictment did not specify what laws Trump broke because "the law does not so require."

Bragg highlighted one law that Trump allegedly broke during the conference: "New York state election law -- what makes it a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy by unlawful means." He also mentioned violations of a federal election law capping contribution limits, CNN reported.

The evidence, Bragg said, will be "borne out in a public courtroom in downtown Manhattan," he said.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 5. 20 points to close at 1,866.68 points on Tuesday. Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 0. 73 points to close at 351. 97 points. A total of 2,971,947-unit shares of 264 companies were traded for Rs 917 billion. Meanwhile, Kalinchowk Darshan Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 9. 98 percent. Likewise, Prabhu Bank Debenture was the top loser with its price dropped by 9.29 percent. At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 70 trillion.

Struggling to provide electricity to industries, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has continued to cut power in the industrial zones in Terai. Particularly, the government-owned power utility has not been able to transmit power to the western Terai region during peak hours. Because of weak transmission infrastructure, NEA has been failing to take electricity from the eastern side of the country to the western side even though the country has been importing electricity in the winter from India by using the 400kV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line. Besides poor local transmission infrastructure,  equally poor cross-border transmission infrastructure has also prevented the country from trading power through with about a dozen low-capacity cross-border lines whose capacity ranges from 33kV to 132kV. Nepal and India agreed to upgrade these low-capacity power lines to boost electricity trading during the 10th joint secretary-level Joint Working Group and the secretary-level Joint Steering Committee held in Jaipur, India on February 17-18. There has been certain progress in upgrading low-capacity lines. “Construction of a second circuit of 132kV Kataiya-Kusaha cross-border transmission line has already been completed,” said a senior official of NEA.  “It should be charged with electricity soon  which has not happened yet.” Likewise, Nepal has already completed constructing a second circuit of the 132kV Parwanipur-Raxaul power line. “The Indian side has notified us that they are constructing an inter-connection of the line between Old Raxaul and New Raxaul area as a part of the construction of a second circuit of the cross-border line,” the official said. Particularly, industries based in the Birgunj area are suffering due to power cuts in the winter as Nepal has not been able to buy extra power from Bihar while Nepal cannot transmit additional power brought through the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line to the Birgunj area because of poor transmission infrastructure. In the last meeting, both sides agreed to improve the capacity of the Raxaul-Parwanipur power line by May this year. Likewise, Nepal has already built the Nepal section of the proposed  132 kV cross-border line between Mainaiya (Butwal)—New Nautanwa (India). “India has also decided to build part of the proposed power line on their side,” the NEA official said. During the last bilateral meeting in India, they had agreed to complete the new Butwal-Mainahiya power line by September this year. Similarly,  Nepal has already issued a tender for constructing a new 132 kV cross-border power line between the Nepalgunj-Nayantara line where a 33 kV line is available, according to the NEA. “The Indian government has also decided to build part of this cross-border line on its territory,” the NEA official said. The capacity of the Nepalgunj-Nantarapower line will also be improved by September this year. The two countries agreed to trade 70MW-80MW through the 132kV Tanakpur-Mahendranagar Cross Border Line. Currently, Nepal has only been importing power through this power line. Except for 400 kV  Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur, all other transmission lines have been used for trading power exclusively via government-to-government agreements.  The NEA official said improvement in these low-capacity power lines would pave the way for more cross-border power trade. “We can also address power supply problems in certain areas of the country due to poor domestic transmission infrastructure,” the official said.

The CPN-UML has left the government in Madhes Province. The ministers participating in the government from the CPN-UML submitted the resignation letter to Chief Minister Saroj Kumar Yadav. UML Madhes Province Parliamentary Party leader and Minister for Physical Infrastructure Development Saroj Kumar Yadav said that four ministers and one state minister resigned from the government. But the UML has decided not to withdraw the support extended to the government. Chief Minister Yadav removed the UML ministers from the government after the party left the government following a new power equation at the center. Minister for Physical Infrastructure Development Saroj Kumar Yadav, Minister for Women, Children, Youth and Sports Mohammad Jaid Alam, Minister for Home Affairs and Communications Satrudhan Prasad Singh, Minister for Law Raj Kumar Lekhi and State Minister for Home Affairs and Communications Keshav Raya tendered their resignation. Chief Minister Yadav has accepted the resignation of all the five ministers and also divided the ministries held by them.