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The price of gold has dropped by Rs 600 per tola in the domestic market on Friday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 92, 500  per tola today. It was traded at Rs 93, 100 per tola on Thursday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 92, 000 per tola today. Similarly, the price of silver is being traded at Rs 1, 170 per tola.

Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi paid farewell calls on President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Speaker of the House of Representatives Agni Prasad Sapkota Sapkota, CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Foreign Minister of Naryan Khadka among leaders recently. During the meetings, she thanked all the Nepali leaders for their strong support and further said that China and Nepal are neighbors linked by mountains and rivers and share unique and historic relations. In 2019, President Xi Jinping paid a historic visit to Nepal, elevating the relationship between the two countries to a new height. She said that China has always appreciated Nepal’s commitment to One-China policy. Ambassador Hou said that the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was kicked off on October 16. This is the important congress held at a critical moment when China was embarking on a new journey to build a modern socialist country. She said that the Chinese people will continue to make achievements in the journey of building a modern socialist country under the leadership of Xi. Meanwhile, ambassador Hou wished Nepal to hold the elections to the House of Representatives and Province Assembly slated for November 20 successfully. She further said that China will always support Nepal to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

An 11-year-old girl was killed in a leopard attack at Sisneghari in Bandipur Rural Municipality-3, Tanahun on Friday. The deceased has been identified as Bina Chepang, Bandipur Rural Municipality spokesperson Shiva Kumar Shrestha said. The wild cat attacked while she was heading towards her aunt’s home at around 6: 30 am today. She was a fifth grader at the Janata Primary School of the same ward.

“A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking.” Andy Warhol thus summed up the popularity of the world’s most renowned brand, Coca-Cola. There is hardly anybody who has not had a Coca-Cola. Established in 1892, the company sells its flagship popular drink in over 200 countries. Anushka Nepal from ApEx talks to Adarsh Avasthi, country director, Coca-Cola Nepal, on what the company has been up to in the recent years.  Being such a global brand, it might be difficult to maintain the customer engagement. Can you share how Coca-Cola has been maintaining that with the consumers in Nepal? Yes, it is difficult to maintain such engagement among customers, but we believe in hearing them out to make our sales more relatable to them. For instance, in Nepal, we have been giving familiar names to our different sized bottles, like ‘Kanchu pack’, which is understandable to many Nepalis, and they can connect with the product. We also hear out good ideas from the customers themselves too. What better way to understand what customers want than that from a customer itself?   Dashain and Tihar are huge festivals in Nepal, and Coca-Cola never misses to launch a festival campaign each year. What campaign is the company running this year? This year, the star of our campaign would be Chef Santosh Shah, who in collaboration with Coca-Cola shared personal recipes for five different dishes that were specifically targeted for the festival. We also wanted to do something better this year, something that would help us connect with our customers on an emotional level. Which is why we decided to facilitate bringing migrant workers back home during this year’s festival. During this festive season, we wanted to give much more than just a pack of beverages. We wanted our customers to have a family to share that pack of beverage.  Was it a challenge to bring the migrant workers back home? How did the company manage to do so? Yes, it was challenging. We had to find them first in order to bring them back. But the company was determined enough to do so. We had a great team that worked really hard on making that happen. And thankfully, we were also able to capture those moments when families reunite after years. I think many of us were able to empathize too after watching that video. It definitely was not easy, but somehow it became possible. I believe it to be the work of a great team. I think it could also be an inspiration to other companies to do something like that in the future.  Throughout the years, we have noticed a lot of emphasis on social impact by Coca-Cola. Can you elaborate more on this. Our main focus as a company is to always strive to make our production process more sustainable. Most of our products in Nepal are manufactured in a glass bottle, which is sustainable. Also, we have been working alongside several NGOs in order to recycle plastic bottles. Those recycled bottles are again used in our production. Likewise, a lot of retailers in Nepal are women. We have been running a program called ‘Sakshyam’ with an objective to uplift at least 1,000 women with their businesses. For instance, if a woman retailer owns a restaurant, we want to facilitate her on how to make those food items more presentable for their consumers. In this way, Coca-Cola has decided to support women employment, and the program has been going good so far.  We are already nearing the end of 2022, are there any upcoming campaigns that consumers can anticipate?  I would not like to give away all the excitement just yet, but Coca-Cola has been planning to launch some exciting campaigns for the end of this year. Since the FIFA World Cup will be taking place soon, we have been working on a campaign that helps our consumers connect with the game on a more personal level. As we all know, Nepal is very much engaged in football and the World Cup definitely gets everyone on their toes. We are planning to launch a campaign that will not just be about the World Cup, but will be something that our consumers will be able to connect on a personal level. It will be mostly targeted for football fans. 

The Kathmandu District Court has ordered the release on bail of standup comedian Apoorwa Khsitiz Singh. A single bench of Justice Madhav Prasad Mainali on Thursday ordered the police administration to release Singh on bail amount of Rs 250, 000, Achyut Neupane, Chief of the District Attorney Office in Kathmandu, said. Singh, who has been running a standup comedy show ‘Comedy Circle’, was arrested on August 28 after a complaint was filed against him for disrespecting the culture and tradition of Newa community during his show.

Just a month-and-a-half after taking office, British Prime Minister Liz Truss has announced her resignation as leader of the ruling Conservative Party and said a new party leader and prime minister would be selected next week, Aljazeera reported. Thursday’s development came after her new chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, rolled back virtually all of her economic agenda. Hunt’s move was supposed to be an impetus for growth, but it became Truss’s declaration of political bankruptcy. At the beginning of this month, at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Truss had still attempted to rally the party around her controversial approach of boosting the United Kingdom’s economy. “I have three priorities for the economy: growth, growth, growth,” she said. But what was supposed to be a change from the tumultuous era of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a sense of chaos under Truss unravelled at a pace that is almost unprecedented in British history, Nicholas Allen, professor of politics at Royal Holloway, University of London, told Al Jazeera. “Previous prime ministers’ central policies have unravelled very quickly, for instance – Neville Chamberlain’s leadership during the spring of 1940, Sir Anthony Eden’s Suez adventure, and David Cameron’s campaign to remain in the EU. I can also think of the backlash to Gordon Brown’s decision not to call a general election in the early autumn of 2007,” Allen said. “But no new prime minister’s position has unravelled so early into their premiership or so catastrophically as Truss’s has over the last few weeks.” The 47-year-old, who entered parliament in 2010, found herself in a first cabinet position in 2014 as secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs under former Prime Minister David Cameron. She since served under Theresa May and Johnson in various positions. In 2021, she was handed the top role of foreign secretary. After Johnson’s announcement to step down, she entered the leadership contest and won the race to succeed with 57.4 percent of the members’ vote against Rishi Sunak, who obtained 42.6 percent, according to Aljazeera. She promised radical tax cuts and high spending to curb energy prices, her very own version of supply-side economics. According to her plan, one that her role models former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former US President Ronald Reagan successfully implemented in the 1980s – albeit under very different circumstances – lower taxes, particularly for the wealthy, lead to investments. At the same time, she believed lower taxes benefit lower income brackets via a trickle-down effect, thus generating substantial economic growth, Aljazeera reported.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 1. 38 points to close at 1,844.14 points on Thursday. Similarly, the sensitive index gained 0. 09 points to close at 363. 05 points. A total of 1,546,857 unit shares of 221 companies were traded for Rs 50 billion. Meanwhile, Sayapatri Hydropower Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 9. 97 percent. Likewise, Century Debenture 2088 was the top loser with its price dropped by 7. 73 percent. At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 65 trillion.

The Election Commission has written a letter to the Rautahat police to take action against CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Nepal for breaching the election code of conduct. Nepal, who is also a candidate from Rautahat constituency-1, had said in a program that he would send youths abroad if he wins the upcoming election which was against the election code of conduct. A news was published recently stating that Nepal has promised to provide job opportunities abroad if he wins the elections. Based on the news, the poll body has directed the Rautahat police to take action against the former prime minister.