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Two persons died when a bike and a truck collided with each other at Bel Bhangyanj in Bandipur Rural Municipality of Tanahun district along the Prithvi Highway on Monday.

The deceased have been identified as Anil Bache Magar and Bikas BK of Byas Municipality-5, Tanahun, the District Police Office, Tanahun said. Both of them were riding on the bike.

The bike (Ga 18 Pa 9295) and the truck (Lu 1 Kha 9832) collided head-on last night, police said.

The government has decided to construct a teachers' hospital in Bharatpur.

A Cabinet meeting held on Monday decided to construct the teachers' hospital in Bharatpur-15 of Chitwan.

Meanwhile, Dr Shilu Manandhar has been appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of the Open University.

A Cabinet meeting decided to appoint Manandhar as the Vice-Chancellor of the university.

Nepal logged 5, 292 new Covid-19 cases and eight deaths on Monday.

With this, the country's active caseload mounted to 1,082,668. Similarly, the death toll has climbed to 11,743.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 10,368 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 3,472 returned positive. Likewise, 5,720 people underwent antigen tests, of which 1,820 tested positive.

The Ministry said that 8,191 infected people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

As of today, there are 79,272 active cases in the country.

The Ministry said that 862,898 infected people have recovered from the disease so far.

The Ministry said that 77,665 people are staying in home isolation while 1, 607 are in institutionalized isolation.

Meanwhile, the Kathmandu Valley reported 1772 new cases today.

According to the Ministry, 1,361 cases are reported in Kathmandu, 271 in Lalitpur and 90 in Bhaktapur.

The Election Commission (EC) submitted a report along with the results of National Assembly Elections to President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Monday.

According to Sagar Acharya, spokesperson of the President's Office, Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya submitted the report to the President amidst a program organized in Sheetal Niwas this afternoon.

Similarly, he also submitted the annual report of the Election Commission as per Article 294 (1) of Nepal's constitution.

A UN report seen by Reuters says the Taliban and its allies are believed to have killed scores of former Afghan officials, security force members and people who worked with the international military contingent since the US-led pullout.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ report to the UN Security Council paints a picture of worsening living conditions for Afghanistan’s 39 million people despite an end of combat with the Taliban’s takeover in August.

“An entire complex social and economic system is shutting down,” Guterres said.

The report sounds the latest in a series of warnings the UN chief has issued in recent months about the humanitarian and economic crises that accelerated after the Taliban seized Kabul as the last US-led foreign troops left and international donors cut critical financial aid.

Guterres recommended the council approve a restructuring of the UN mission to deal with the situation, including the creation of a new human rights monitoring unit.

The UN mission “continues to receive credible allegations of killings, enforced disappearances and other violations” against former officials, security force members and people who worked for the US-led international military contingent despite a general amnesty announced by the Taliban, the report said.

The mission has determined as credible reports that more than 100 of those individuals have been killed – more than two-thirds of them allegedly by the Taliban or their affiliates – since Aug. 15, it said.

There also are credible allegations of the extra-judicial killings of at least 50 people suspected of belonging to the local branch of the Islamic State militant group, according to the report.

“Human rights defenders and media workers continue to come under attack, intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and killings,” it said.

India has forecast its economy will grow 8% to 8.5% for the fiscal year starting in April, down from 9.2% projected in the current year, as it fights a spike in COVID-19 cases and rising inflationary pressure, Reuters reported.

At that pace, India's economic growth next fiscal year will still be the fastest among major economies.

All macro indicators indicated Asia's third-largest economy was well placed to face challenges, helped by improving farm and industrial output growth, the government's annual economic survey said on Monday.

The report, tabled by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in parliament ahead of the annual budget on Tuesday, warned about risks from global inflation and pandemic-related disruptions.

"India does need to be wary of imported inflation, especially from elevated global energy prices," said Sanjeev Sanyal, principal economic adviser at the finance ministry and the lead author of the report.

India, which meets nearly 80% of its oil needs from imports, faces the risk that inflation will hit consumer demand as global crude prices hover near a 7-year high at more than $90 a barrel.

"The global environment still remains uncertain," the report said citing planned withdrawal of monetary support by major central banks including the U.S. Federal Reserve. Higher rates elsewhere could lead to capital outflows for India.

The growth projections assumed a normal rainfall and an orderly withdrawal of global liquidity by major central banks, the report said.

Private economists said the government and central bank would have to balance their efforts to support economic growth considering rising inflationary pressures and sluggish domestic demand.

"With the rising pressure to tighten the monetary stance, policymakers will have difficulty in calibrating policy choices to balance between growth and (price) stability objectives," said Rumki Majumdar, economist at Deloitte India.

The report said the government had fiscal space to provide additional support if necessary, citing a 67% increase in revenue receipts during the April-November period from a year earlier.

India's economy has been on the mend after the government lifted mobility measures in June to curb the spread of coronavirus, after contracting 7.3% in the previous fiscal year.

But after a surge in Omicron cases early this month, many private economists and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have cut growth estimates to 9% from an initial 11% estimate.

The annual report, which presents a report card of India's economic achievements and provides new estimates, has often missed targets.

Last year it forecast annual economic growth of 11%, that was later revised down by the statistics ministry to 9.2%, after economic activity was hit hard by the Omicron variant.

Private consumption, accounting for nearly 55% of GDP, remains weak amid rising levels of household debt, while retail prices have soared since the coronavirus outbreak began in early 2020.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 13.48 points to close at 2,872.05 points on Monday.

Similarly, the sensitive index rose to 0.39 points to close at 538.39 points.

A total of 10,105,669 units of the shares of 225 companies were traded for Rs 5.14 billion.

Meanwhile, Forward Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today followed by Liberty Energy Company Limited with their price surging by 10 percent each. Likewise, Mountain Hydro Nepal Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 3.44 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalisation stood at Rs 4.05 trillion.

Senior leaders of the ruling coalition have expedited parleys of late to forge a common ground on America’s $ 500 million grant under Millennium Challenge Corporation(MCC).

Over the past few days, top leaders of the Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), and CPN (Unified Socialist) have been meeting on a daily basis to find a common ground. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is also NC President, is in favor of endorsing the MCC without any delay, while CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal are buying time.

Dahal and Nepal have conveyed a message to the PM that they are in favor of endorsing the MCC but they have to convince their respective party colleagues. Several Maoist leaders are pressing Dahal not to endorse it from Parliament. On January 31, PM held consultations with Dahal and Nepal about tabling MCC in the full House. Earlier on January 29, parties held extensive talks on the MCC.

During a meeting with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal at the former’s official residence in Baluwatar on Monday morning, Dahal said that the MCC should not be endorsed in its existing form.

A bill concerning MCC was registered in the Parliament Secretariat in 2019 which is yet to be tabled in the Parliament. PM Deuba was in favor of tabling the MCC in the Parliament session that was scheduled to take place on January 30. PM Deuba has been saying that he would not force them to vote in favor of MCC and he should be allowed to table it in the Parliament.

However, the Parliament session was postponed for 10 days. Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota has conveyed the message to top cross-party leaders that he would not table the MCC bill in the Parliament with forging consensus among the parties.

Along with consensus among parties, speaker Sapkota has also been saying that the CPN-UML should remove parliamentary obstructions.

America has not set any specific deadline but is urging Nepali leaders to act on MCC as soon as possible. The MCC is becoming complicated because there are growing interests of some outside powers on it, said a ruling party leader.