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The country's central bank is turning a blind eye to corporate governance flaws in Sanima Bank, despite calling it out in its previous reports, it has been revealed.

The central bank, in its report for the bank two years ago, had said that the bank's big investors, board members and high-ranking officials facilitated big investments in other companies they are associated with.

However, two years after the report, the central bank is yet to take action against the bank, Jana Astha reports. According to the report, the central bank hasn't sent a monitoring mission in the past two years, despite the previous report's flags.  

Also read: Central bank flags NCC Bank’s wrongdoing

The NRB report had said that board members, investors and high-level officials of the bank invested in Sanima Hydropower, Sanima Mai Hydropower and Sanima Life Insurance companies in a possible conflict of interest. It was also found that cash was exchanged between board members, the head of the legal division and other officials.

The central bank has, however, remained mum on the issue. Board members of the central bank agree that action should have been taken against the bank based on the report.

Sanima Bank's CEO Bhuwan Dahal dismissed the report saying that it doesn't cite any provisions mentioned in the central bank's unified directives. He told Jana Astha that such reports don't have any standing.

Paddy farmers across the country have borne huge losses due to unexpected heavy rains immediately after the Dashain festival.

Although the monsoon usually recedes in the final week of September, it left Nepal only in the first week of October this year. Similarly, the westerly winds, which start to dominate the weather system, mostly in western Nepal from around November, set in early this year.

Thousands of farmers in Dang have had to face huge losses due to the rains. “The farmers had already harvested the paddy and were drying it in the sun when the unexpected rainfall started,” says Shyam Lal Chaudhary, a resident of Tulsipur Sub-metropolitan City in Dang.

A total of 39,000 hectares of land was being used for paddy cultivation in Dang this year. Officials hoped that production would increase this year after a fair amount of rainfall during the monsoon season.

“We are seeing rains across the country due to the interaction of the monsoon’s easterly winds and the westerly winds that come into Nepal during the winter,” says Meteorologist Indira Kandel. She says, normally, Nepal would experience dry conditions during the period as both the easterly and westerly winds are weak over Nepali skies and they seldom interact. However, this year, the late withdrawal of the monsoon and the early arrival of westerly winds led the two systems to interact and cause unexpected rainfall, she adds.

Also read: Fear of gods halt Mustang excavation

Paddy output is also expected to decline this year in Tanahun, where the rainfall adversely affected paddy production. “While the paddy being dried in the sun was drenched in the rain. Land on which the crop was being cultivated has been flooded,” says Rajendra Paudel, a resident of Byas Municipality-11.

The story of farmers in Shuklagandaki Municipality is also similar. The town’s head of agriculture Navraj Pandit says drenched harvest produces less grains even when dried in the sun. “We expect output to decline by around 20-25 percent this year,” says Kul Prasad Tiwari, head of Agriculture Knowledge Center, Tanahun.

Paddy farmers in other regions of the country, especially in the Tarai, are also reeling under the same problem. Although a nationwide assessment is yet to be carried out, officials expect national paddy output to fall this year due to the untimely rains.

According to meteorologist Kandel, the system has been moving west and causing rainfall in Nepal’s far-west region. On Monday, October 18, Dadeldhura received 168.8 mm of rain, Dipayal 95.3, and Dhangadhi 80. Alarms have been raised across the region after the Mahakali, a transboundary river between Nepal and India, was flooded due to heavy rains in its catchment area.

Want to enjoy good food at a lively restaurant at an affordable price? Try ‘Fork It’. Located in Baluwatar, Fork It Restaurant and Bar offers modern twists to traditional food, and with an artistic touch to their presentation.

Opened at the start of 2020, the restaurant has soon become a bustling hang-out place. Along with a modern industrial ambience and unique food, the other major attraction of Fork It is the upbeat environment created by live music. All in all, its frisky atmosphere and amazing food make it a perfect Friday-night location. Also on offer are home delivery services.

Fork It

Chef’s Special Dishes:

Crispy Chicken Burger
Lasagna
Flower Chicken Burger

Opening time: 12:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Location:Thisbam Sadak, Baluwatar
Meal for 2 - Rs. 1000
Phone pay - Yes
Reservation - Yes

The Nepali Congress General Convention, now scheduled for November 25-29 in Kathmandu, is likely to be postponed for the fourth time. The party, as stipulated in its charter, must hold the gathering of its biggest decision-making body every four years. The 2015 constitution of Nepal obliges all political parties to complete their general convention every five years. Yet it has been over five-and-a-half years since Nepali Congress held its last convention, in a clear breach of its constitutional obligation.

This inability of the country’s oldest-running democratic party is a bad omen. With even Congress failing to organize its most important gathering on time, other party leaders too could find a handy excuse to postpone their conventions. And excuses are a legion in Congress. Party President Sher Bahadur Deuba has kept putting off the convention fearing that his rivals are in the ascendancy. Covid-19 became another excuse. Now the biggest roadblock is the distribution of party membership, as top NC leaders look to give (and renew) memberships to their close ones while blocking the memberships of those close to rival factions.

Also read: Editorial: Devouring democracy

The bitter membership dispute has delayed NC’s ward and district-level conventions, which in turn has affected the scheduling of the national convention. This failure of the Congress party is indicative, above all, of the lack of internal democracy among Nepali political parties, which continue to be run like fiefs of a handful of leaders. And if these parties cannot practice even a semblance of internal democracy, they can hardly be expected to display better a democratic behavior on the national stage.

The only long-term solution to this perennial problem in Nepali politics is to constitutionally set strict term and age limits on party leadership. Once there is a natural churning of leadership at the top, the practice is bound to trickle down to the lower rungs of the party hierarchy. The question is: Who will take the risk of trying to bell the old cats in the national legislature to amend the constitution to this effect? In the meantime, the likes of Deuba and KP Oli will continue to play fast and loose with legal provisions to prolong their tenures.

Nepali National football team has returned home with the runner-up title from the 13th South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship held in the Maldives. 

The team reached the finals for the first time in 28 years but lost to India 3-0. 

The team landed at the Tribhuvan Airport on the morning of October 18. Members were welcomed by the Minister for Youth and Sports Maheshwor Gahatraj and representatives from the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA). Football lovers and supporters from all over the country, too, came to welcome and congratulate the team. 

The central bank has objected to Nepal Credit and Commerce Bank's decision to appoint three deputy CEOs. The bank, which entered into mergers with a number of development banks, went against the norms in the name of management of senior officials, the central bank has held.

Central bank officials who visited the bank's headquarters two years ago had flagged the issue, but NCC Bank hasn't rectified its decision, clickmandu.com reports. The bank appointed Bandana Pathal and Rewant Kumar Dahal to the position of deputy CEO two years ago. Sandeep Prasad Pandey was appointed to the same post just five days later.

Also read: Nepal SBI Bank misusing employee money

The central bank had directed NCC to consider the bank's size and the volume of its business before adding further financial burden on itself. The bank's decision to form eight different committees of board members has also not gone down well with Nepal Rastra Bank. The central bank requires that at least four such committees be established. But the bank has gone overboard and established eight committees.

The central bank's monitoring mission had also found that the management didn't maintain records of the board members' attendance in board meetings, and of the qualifications of board members. Similarly, all members of the board haven't signed the minutes of board meetings.

False information online has left one in five girls (20 percent) feeling physically unsafe, according to The Truth Gap, a new report by Plan International.

The research includes a landmark survey of over 26,000 girls and young women from 26 countries, which also found that exposure to lies and mistruths are having a profound impact on how they engage with issues ranging from Covid-19 to politics.

Plan International, which says the findings lay bare the ‘real life consequences’ of misinformation and disinformation on girls and young women, is calling on governments to educate children and young people in digital literacy.

One in three report that false information is affecting their mental health, leaving them feeling stressed, worried and anxious.

In-depth interviews carried out by Plan International suggest that girls are feeling unsafe because online exchanges are increasing social tensions within communities.

Others reported concerns about bogus events advertised on social media placing them at physical risk, or unreliable medical advice that could harm their health.

More than a quarter (28 percent) of those surveyed have been led to believe a myth or ‘fake fact’ about COVID-19, and one in four (25 percent) have questioned whether to get vaccinated against the virus.

One in five (19 percent) say mistruths are so rife that they have distrusted election results, while one in five (18 percent) have stopped engaging in politics or current affairs as a result.

Girls and young women from low and middle-income countries were more likely to be affected by unreliable or false information online, and twice as likely to have questioned whether to get the vaccine (31 percent) than those in high income countries (16 percent).

In the first large-scale global study to examine the gendered impact of misinformation and disinformation online, it was found that nearly nine in 10 (87 percent) of girls and young women think it has had a negative impact on their lives.

Globally, there was no online source that the majority of those surveyed trusted to provide reliable information.

The most trusted source was mainstream news media, selected by 48 percent, above educational institutions, family members and national governments.

The survey found that Facebook was the social media platform that girls believe to have the most misinformation and disinformation, selected by 65 percent of respondents, followed by TikTok, WhatsApp and YouTube–all at 27 percent.

According to Charlotte*, 23, from Wales, the abundance of false information on the internet can leave people “very, very vulnerable”.

“I think sometimes there’s that lack of accountability in the online world where people can just do things without getting repercussions,” she explains.

Bhagyashri Dengle, Executive Director of Gender Transformative Policy at Plan International said:

“The internet shapes girls’ opinions about themselves, the issues they care about and the world around them. Our research makes clear that the spread of false information online has real life consequences. It is dangerous, it affects girls’ mental health, and it’s yet another thing holding them back from engaging in public life.

“Every day, girls and young women in all their diversity are bombarded online with lies and stereotypes about their bodies, who they are and how they should behave. Images and videos are manipulated to objectify and shame them. Rumours are spread as a form of abuse. And girls have a very real fear that fake events and profiles will lure and trick them into danger offline.”

As part of its Girls Get Equal campaign, Plan International is supporting girls worldwide in calling on governments to take immediate action to increase children and young people’s digital literacy, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to identify false information and engage confidently in online spaces.

The organisation’s survey found that seven out of 10 girls and young women (67 percent) have never been taught how to spot misinformation or disinformation at school.

Mia, 20, from Kenya said: “We are in a world where everything is being done on the internet. We are doing everything digitally. So I think [digital literacy] should be taught in the schools from…the primary schools to secondary schools to universities. So that when we grow up, we have a better view on how to use our digital platforms.”

Dengle continued: “The truth is crucial for girls to make safe decisions and to have power and control over their lives. But right now, girls don’t know what to believe, who to trust and where to find the truth.

“We need to equip girls and all children for an increasingly digital world. That’s why we are backing girls’ calls for digital literacy to be included in their education.”

The girls’ petition can be signed at this link: https://plan-international.org/sign-girls-petition

(Names have been changed)

MAW Life, the authorised importer of Jeep Brand in Nepal rolled out the iconic off-roading SUV Jeep Wrangler in Nepal. His Excellency Mr Randy Berry, Ambassador of USA to Nepal, has unveiled the Jeep Wrangler in an exclusive launch event organised at Jeep Showroom, Naxal.

The most instantly identified vehicle in the world, Jeep Wrangler comes in both two-door and four door. The two door Wrangler is available in Rubicon trim while the four door Wrangler also known as ‘Wrangler Unlimited’ is available in Rubicon and Sahara trim.

Commenting on the launch of the Wrangler, His Excellency Randy Berry, said, “It is a matter of pride to us that the vehicle that is linked to US history has come to Nepal. We wish that US-Nepal trade and investment relations will flourish in the future.”

Likewise, Mr Vishnu Agarwal- Managing Director, MAW Group said, “We are delighted to offer the Jeep Wrangler in Nepal. Jeep Wrangler is the most iconic model and brings JEEP brand heritage along with it.”

“We had been working hard to bring it to Nepal as we were receiving lots of enquiry for it since we launched Jeep Compass in 2018,” he added.

The most capable SUV ever made

The most capable 4x4 SUV ever made, the Jeep Wrangler comes with a Trail Rated badge pointing to its impressive off-road capabilities.

Powering Jeep Wrangler is a 4-cylinder, inline, 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine that delivers 201 Kw and 400 Nm of peak torque. The engine is paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission. The Rubicon trim gets a Jeep RockTrac 4x4 AWD system featuring a two-speed transfer case. The vehicle boasts of a 217mm ground clearance.

The iconic design

The Wrangler sports the typical Jeep look with the Jeep CJ-inspired keystone-shaped seven-slot grille and round reflector LED headlights with LED DRLs. Also available are LED front fog lamps and square LED tail lamps. It also has a fold-down windshield and removable hard roof and doors in the Wrangler Rubicon. There are 17-inch alloy wheels with mid-gloss black pockets with trapezoidal wheel arches. All these styles make the Jeep Wrangler, the most recognised vehicle.

Premium interior

Inside the cabin of Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, you will come across a leather dashboard, leather seats and leather-wrapped multifunction steering wheel, gear selector, transfer case and parking brake. There is the fourth-generation 8.4-inch UConnect touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. Also available are features like 7-inch driver MID, dual-zone air conditioning, engine stop/start, cruise control, ambient lighting and weather-proof push-button start.

Loaded with best safety features

Jeep Wrangler comes with 75 passive and active safety and security features. Some of these features include park assist system, rear backup camera, ESC (electronic stability control), TSC (trailer sway control), HSA (hill start assist), HDC (hill descent control), ERM (electronic roll mitigation) and TPMS (tyre pressure monitoring system).

Price

Jeep Wrangler Rubicon: Rs 2,69,00,000/-
Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara: Rs 2,67,00,000/-
Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon: Rs 2,79,00,000/-

Key notes for Jeep Wrangler

• The iconic Wrangler- the most capable production 4X4 vehicle in the world.

• Its style is original, authentic and capable, and is rooted to the Willys' MB 1941. 

• An authentic off-roader that inspires its owner to dream and delivers on the values of Freedom and Adventure time and again.

• The iconic design of the Wrangler is legendary.

• Customers around the world immediately identify with its legendary styling cues- the vertical seven-slot grille, flanking round headlamps, trapezoidal wheel arches, detachable roof and doors, square shaped tail lamps and fold-down windshield.

• Wrangler is built in line with Jeep's tagline that ‘Go Anywhere, Do Anything’. Its objective is simple: delivering the Freedom.