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The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has estimated that the country needs to invest as much as $4bn by 2030 to transform the existing transmission infrastructure. In a presentation at a program last week, NEA Managing Director Kul Man Ghising said an investment of $3.95bn will be required to complete the NEA’s plan of transforming the existing transmission infrastructure which has remained poor and unreliable. According to him, it will require $2.51bn for the planned and ongoing transmission line projects within the Kathmandu Valley and outside. An additional $1.44bn will be required for constructing the substations. NEA is currently developing and has planned to develop 400kV, 220kV, 132kV, and 66kV transmission lines and substations. Even though load shedding in the country officially ended in May 2019, the reliability of the power supply has been a major concern for industrial and general consumers. The NEA leadership has time and again insisted that the next major focus would be to improve the transmission and distribution infrastructure of power supply. NEA has been forced to cut power industries based in the Birgunj area because of failure to supply power there due to poor transmission infrastructure. Nepal has been importing electricity from India during the dry season but it has not been able to deliver the imported power from India to Birgunj where industries are facing daily power cuts. One of the main reasons behind the failure to deliver the imported power to the area is poor transmission infrastructure. “Existing transmission line cannot carry much power,” said an NEA official. “So, we have failed to deliver power from Dhalkebar to Birgunj.” Nepal has been importing power through the 400kV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur Cross Border Transmission Line from the Indian market. While domestic transmission infrastructure has remained poor, the cross-border transmission infrastructure between Nepal and India is also not efficient. For example, the 132kV Raxaul-Parwanipur Cross Border Transmission Line can transmit only 80MW of electricity. The 33kV Raxual-Birgunj Transmission Line Project can carry only 12MW electricity. “We have requested the Bihar State government for the supply of additional 90MW of electricity through improvement in cross border power lines,” said the NEA official. Considering the poor state of cross-border power lines, Nepal and India agreed to upgrade these transmission lines. There are a dozen cross-border power lines between Nepal and India. Except for Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur, the capacity of other power lines range between 33kV to 132kV, according to the NEA. So improving domestic and cross-border electricity lines between Nepal and India has emerged as a major priority for the government-owned power utility to ensure the reliability of the power supply. NEA officials say improving the quality of power supply is important to promote the use of electric vehicles and electric cooktops in the country as well.

It's been over three and half decades since the government began construction of the Babai Irrigation Project, one of the national pride projects, which has achieved only 65 percent of the physical progress so far. The development of the Babai Irrigation Project commenced in the fiscal year 1988/89 and the completion deadline has been set to FY 2025/26. Given the current pace of the construction, it is unlikely that the project would be completed in the next three and half years. The project has to complete 35.76 percent of the remaining work by that time to meet the construction deadline. However, project officials say that there is a challenge in completing the remaining work during that period. The physical progress of the project in mid-July was 62.23 percent. And, only 2.01 percent of additional physical progress has been achieved in the first six months of this fiscal year. The project officials admit this progress is not satisfactory. In order to complete the construction of the project within the specified deadline, physical progress should be made at the rate of 3 percent quarterly, 6 percent semi-annually and 12 percent annually. However, the report of the project has confirmed that work has not been done accordingly. Now, project officials say there is no option but to extend the deadline. Although the construction started in FY 1988/89, the funding was inadequate at the beginning. Later, in FY 2012/13, Babai Irrigation was given the status of a 'national pride project', and after this, a larger budget was allocated for the project. However, the construction of the project was again affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the delay by the contractor. Ramakrishna Ghorasaini, Information Officer of the project, said that it is difficult to complete the construction within the stipulated timeframe. "While the construction of the project was going smoothly, the pandemic stalled the works for almost two years," he said, adding, "Last year, the contractors did not work citing the rise in the price of construction materials." The project was launched by the government with the aim of providing irrigation facilities to around 36,000 hectares of arable land in the Bardia district. The total cost of the project is estimated at Rs18.96bn, which will be invested by the government. So far, Rs11.63bn has been spent on the project. Initially, the estimated cost of the project was Rs2bn which has gone up with the delay in the construction with each passing year.

A writ has been registered against CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal at the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Advocate Gyanendra Raj Aran filed the writ this morning. Earlier on Friday, a division bench of Justices Ishwor Khatiwada and Hari Prasad Phuyal had ordered its administration to take writs against Dahal. Advocate Aran registered the writ demanding an order to investigate and prosecute the criminal charges against Dahal in connection with the war-ear cases. Assistant spokesperson at the apex court Devendra Dhakal said that advocate Aran filed a case against Dahal and the hearing has been scheduled for Thursday. During a program held on January 15, 2020, Dahal had said that out of 17, 000 people killed in the Maoist insurgency, 5,000 were killed by the Maoist and he would take the responsibility for it. ALSO READ: Mishandling of transitional justice process Based on his remarks, advocate duo Aran and Kalyan Budhathoki had filed separate writ petitions demanding investigation and action against Dahal. But the court administration had refused to do so, claiming that the issue was related to transitional justice. Then rebels had kidnapped and murdered advocate Aran’s father Tilakraj. Similarly, advocate Budhathoki’s father was displaced. The Supreme Court’s decision has rattled Prime Minister Dahal and his party. They are crying foul over what they say is a conspiracy to corner them by bringing up the conflict-era cases, which ought to be dealt by the transitional justice commissions.    

Nepal has set the target of graduating from the least developed country to a developing country by 2026—but there are challenges galore. World leaders expressed concerns about the challenges posed by the global environment including the Russia Ukraine conflict that could deepen poverty and set roadblocks on their target to uplift the status of more countries from the block. Nepal in particular is raising the issue of  duty- and quota-free market access, special and differential treatments, preferential rules of origin, service waiver, aid for trade, and flexibilities in the implementation of multilateral trade rules and commitments. The UN has recognized LDCs as the ‘poorest and weakest segment of the international community’ since 1971. The group currently holds 46 countries, most of which are in Africa, and represents nearly 40 percent of the world population. Only six countries have graduated from the group while many have made remarkable progress in poverty alleviation and improvement in the quality of life. The Doha conference has brought top UN officials, LDC leaders, and members of the international community to debate ways to ensure the implementation of Doha Program of Action. Nepal’s representation Leaders have described the framework as a ‘new global partnership’ that would enable graduation of more countries from the LDC category within this decade. After diplomatic debacles at home—ahead of two key UN events—the world is closely watching Nepal’s commitment to human rights and LDC affairs. The Nepal government has entrusted Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Narayan Kaji Shrestha with the task of leading the Nepali delegation at the Doha conference. It was a last-minute decision after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was caught up in domestic political affairs. Nepal is set to elect its new president on March 9, and Prime Minister Dahal himself is set to go on a parliamentary floor test after its coalition partners, CPN-UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party, pulled out of the government. Previously, Prime Minister Dahal government had delegated his “peace and human rights advisor” and former law minister, Govinda Prasad Koirala (Bandi), to lead the Nepali delegation at the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Dahal had prevented the foreign minister at the time, Bimala Rai Poudyal, from taking part in the session following the decision of UML (Poudyal’s party) to pull out from the government. At the ongoing LDC conference, too, there was a last-minute change of plans. Though Prime Minister Dahal was supposed to attend the gathering, he pulled out at the last minute, citing preparations for the presidential election and parliamentary vote of confidence. The current iteration of LDC conference is significant for Nepal, for it is taking over the chair of the LDC grouping from Malawi for three years after this event. It is also crucial, given the globally divided international order and the forward-looking goal that Nepal aims to set for the world's low-income countries. The Russia-Ukraine war, which started last year, has divided the world’s powerful nations, overshadowing some key international meetings and impacted the global supply chain and cost of living around the world. The Doha conference could have been an important platform for Nepal.  Observers say the presence of Prime Minister Dahal would have been more impactful on the crucial meeting. But instead of Dahal, it was his deputy, Shrestha, who addressed the conference as a keynote speaker. He also met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Addressing the gathering UN Secretary General Guterres said: “Countries with the least need the support most. And the need for support is something that is required now.” He said most developed countries were falling short of their promise to provide 0.15 to 0.20 percent of their Gross National Income to LDCs, who are struggling to combat the climate catastrophe and struggling to address the impacts of conflicts and poverty, among others. It also pledges to create a food stockholding system to address food insecurity and establish an investment support center to help LDC and graduated countries attract foreign investment. The UN Secretary General Guterres has stressed that it would be unfortunate if the graduating countries failed to continue their momentum. “Graduation must be a reward, never a punishment,” he said. “We cannot allow countries to fall back down the development ladder after working so hard to climb it.” Among the seven LDC countries scheduled to graduate by 2026, five are from the Asia Pacific region. While Bhutan is graduating this year, Solomon Islands, Angola and Sao Tome and Principe are set to graduate next year. Bangladesh, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and Nepal are slated to become middle-income countries by November 2026. Leaders of the graduating countries spoke about ‘smooth transition strategies’ under the current ‘unprecedented circumstances.’ Addressing the general debate, Deputy Prime Minister Shrestha stressed that the LDC graduation should be smooth and sustainable. He said Nepal is determined to graduate despite the fact that pace of economic development is not rapid and satisfactory in the country. “There should be a continuation of some support measures so that the graduating and the graduated LDCs will attain and sustain smooth and irreversible graduation,” he said. Shrestha also called upon development partners to fulfill their Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitments and provide “concrete and substantial support to meet the development needs” of the LDCs. Fighting climate change is a collective responsibility, Shrestha said, while stressing that the loss and damage funds agreed upon by world leaders should be adequate so that the underdeveloped countries could implement climate adaptation programs. Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering expressed hope that the country’s transformation could propel for a lasting graduation. He added that the landlocked kingdom had accessibility challenges for international trade and market and stressed that the country would seek support from the UN and development partners post-graduation. “It is another fact that more developed countries are diverting a significant amount of their resources into defense systems. This will take away resources that will otherwise be invested in health care, education, food and nutrition for the people in the developing parts of the world,” he said According to the UN, among the nine countries in the graduation pipeline, five have met the criteria, two have been recommended for graduation and two have been deferred by the Committee for Development Policy (CDP), a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council. Challenges ahead  Arjun Karki, global coordinator of the LDC watch, a civil society organization representing the LDCs, says the road ahead for those countries looking forward to graduating to developing countries is not easy. “After 50 years of programs of action by the UN and development partners, the stark reality is that these programs have utterly failed to bring significant improvements in the living standard of people in LDCs,” he said. He has called for the need of a renewed international cooperation with a new set of formal and informal institutions and design of new international support mechanisms for LDCs to address their structural constraints and vulnerabilities. Hundreds of delegates debated at the main event and sideline events keeping in focus the world’s poor population. There were questions whether the countries that aspire to climb up the development ladder can maintain the hard earned achievements. While many other countries fighting with poverty, conflicts and perils of climate change called for more global support stating that they would not want to languish in the category for another 50 years. With Kathmandu witnessing renewed political instability and the country's economy facing challenges on multiple fronts, there are many who are skeptical of Nepal’s smooth transition from an LDC status to a developing one. “It’s hard to predict what situation we will be in future. Both political and economic challenges are there,” an official said, adding that the decision to move forward with the graduation was taken when Nepal’s economy was in a better shape. What do the LDC countries want?  Bangladesh, Laos, and Nepal have come up with a joint statement. They have called on  international community and development partners, including multilateral development banks and international financial institutions, to extend necessary support to the graduating LDCs in the spirit of the Doha Program of Action that calls for international solidarity and reinvigorated global partnership. Their demands are as follows:  -Support to formulate and implement strategies -Continuation of international support measures beyond graduation -Promote export diversification -Providing easy and flexible access to climate mitigation -Technical support to public finance management reforms -Continued ODA to meet financing gap -Post-graduation extension of waivers    -Assurance of safe, orderly and regular migration 

With the government struggling to strike a balance between income and expenditure, the federal budget is currently in deficit which is increasing every successive month. The statistics of the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO) show the federal budget is in deficit by Rs 153.61 billion till March 5. The government revenue till the first week of March stood at Rs 594.91 billion whereas expenditure has reached Rs 748.52 billion. With the government failing to collect enough revenue while expenditures, particularly the recurrent expenditure, are rising fast, the fiscal imbalance is growing alarmingly. According to FCGO, the fiscal deficit began by the end of Ashoj (mid-September to mid-October) with the government failing to collect revenue as per target while recurrent expenditure, especially continue to increase. The government has targeted to collect Rs 1,244.75 billion in revenue in the current fiscal year. However, even after almost eight months, only 44.58 percent of the target has been achieved. With fiscal deficit looming, the government on February 12, announced a cut in its annual budget by a whopping 13.59 percent, the largest cut in recent times, after realizing that it would not be able to raise the required resources from all the most sources—particularly revenue and foreign aid. The revised budgetary allocation now amounts to Rs 1,549.99 billion from the original size of Rs 1,793.83 billion. The government’s revenue collection suffered mainly due to the prolonged import restrictions on a number of products including vehicles, alcohol, and expensive mobiles as well as the provision of cash margin in imports. The restrictions were first imposed in April 2022 for the import of 10 types of products. The number of restricted products was later reduced gradually but the ban on vehicles, alcohols, and expensive mobile sets continued till mid-December last year when the embargo was eventually lifted. The Nepal Rastra Bank made it mandatory to deposit a cash margin of up to 100 percent for opening letters of credit for the import of a number of products which also hit import-based revenue. Import covers around 50 percent of Nepal’s total revenue, according to the Department of Customs. Though these measures were taken to address the external sector vulnerability amid the ballooning balance of payment deficit and depleting foreign exchange reserves, the restrictive steps created a new problem of shortfall of resources for the government. The shortfall in revenue was also aggravated by increased compulsory liability by the previous government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba by increasing salaries for public officials and increasing the beneficiaries of social security allowances. This prompted the government to take harsh measures of budget cuts. A reprioritization of projects which have not been implemented even after getting a resource guarantee from the finance ministry, surrender of the budget which cannot be spent in the current fiscal year, and abandoning any proposal that creates new liabilities are other austerity measures announced by the Finance Ministry.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 300 per tola in the domestic market on Tuesday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 102, 500 per tola today. The yellow metal was traded at Rs 102, 800 per tola on Monday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 102, 000 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has dropped by Rs 10 and is being traded at Rs 1,265 per tola today.

A joint meeting of the Maoist factions has decided to oppose and counter the activities that are against the spirit of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. A meeting held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar has decided to move forward as per the spirit of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Khadga Prakash Bishwokarma said. "All the issues related to transitional justice should be taken ahead through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP). The attention has been drawn to carry out the remaining works of the peace process in a speedy manner," read a joint statement issued after the meeting. “We are committed to implementing the agreements reached with the state at different times.” It has been learnt that the meeting also held important discussions in making the works of the TRC and the CIEDP, the transitional justice mechanisms formed as per the CPA, more effective. "We are clear on the fact that activities against the process of transitional justice will not help in the implementation of the peace agreement. We call on the government to immediately take initiatives to make the legal and institutional provisions required for concluding the remaining works of the peace process," the statement further read. The leaders present in the meeting said that they are united in confronting any kind of activities directed against the CPA and political change. Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepal Samajbadi Party Chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai, CPN (Revolutionary Maoist) Standing Committee member CP Gajurel, NCP spokesperson Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma, CPN (Bahumat) Coordinator Dharmendra Bastola, Baigyanik Samajbadi Communist Party General Secretary Bishwa Bhakta Dulal, CPN (Maoist Socialist) Chairman Karnajeet Budhathoki and Maoist Communist Party of Nepal central member Narayan Prasad Dhimal were present in the meeting.      

I’m a 33-year-old who thinks he hasn’t done enough in life. I see people around me accomplishing so much, whether it’s professionally or personally. I can’t help but feel like I’m falling behind. Although I know everyone moves at their own pace, and that it’s okay to take things slow, I can’t help but think I’m not measuring up. I feel overwhelmed and uninspired, which only makes things worse. What should I do? – A.D. Answered by Arpita Subba, psychologist, Happy Minds Feeling like you aren’t doing enough in life is a common experience, especially in our society, where success is often measured by external achievements like career accomplishments, financial status, and personal milestones. However, it’s necessary to understand that not everyone has the same definition of success. What might seem like a significant accomplishment to someone might not be important to another. So, comparing yourself to others and their successes is not only unhelpful but also unfair to you. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed and unmotivated at times, but it’s necessary to identify the underlying causes of these feelings. You might be unhappy with your career, or might feel like you’re not making progress in your personal life. Only when you’ve identified the root cause of the problem, can you finally work on addressing it.  One way to combat these feelings is to set achievable goals. This can be as simple as setting a daily or weekly to-do list or as complex as creating a long-term career or personal plan. The key is to break down your goals into smaller, manageable tasks that you can accomplish. By doing so, you’ll not only have a sense of direction and purpose, but also be able to track your progress and celebrate your achievements along the way. Another is to practice self-compassion. Be kind to yourself and acknowledge that you’re doing the best you can with the resources you have and circumstances you’re in. Understand that life isn’t a race, and everyone has their own journey. Comparing yourself to others only leads to feeling inadequate and self-doubt. Instead, focus on your own progress and growth, while celebrating small victories along the way. Regular habits can also influence our thoughts and emotions. When we engage in activities like socializing, or pursuing our passions, we’re more likely to think positively about ourselves and our abilities. So, make sure to pay attention to your thinking patterns, behavior, and emotions and how they’re interconnected.  It’s also essential to take care of your physical and mental health. Exercise regularly, eat a healthy and balanced diet, get enough sleep, and practice mindfulness, and relaxation techniques. When your body and mind both are healthy, you’ll have more energy and motivation to pursue your goals. Lastly, seek support from friends, family, or a professional if needed. Talking about your feelings with someone you trust can help you gain a certain perspective and receive much needed emotional support.