Submit your Article

Since officially entering Nepal in 2018, Xiaomi has been able to make a distinct mark in the Nepali smartphone industry. The brand has successfully launched in Nepal its best-selling phones like Redmi Note 8 Pro, Redmi 8A, and Redmi K20 Pro. With high demand for the brand’s products, Xiaomi has expanded its retail footprint.

Xiaomi runs on a triathlon business model with New Retail as one of its cores, inspiring the company’s offline operations. Under New Retail, the brand sells both online and offline but since demand is higher in offline, the brand has been providing its products and services through efficient channels like the Mi Preferred Partners, Mi Studios, and Mi Retail Partners.

Mi Preferred Partner stores are Xiaomi branding differentiated stores, whereas Mi Retail partners are stores which sell Xiaomi phones along with other brands. Since its inception the brand has been able to scale up its offline segment massively. Currently it has over 260 Mi Preferred partner stores and over 1,200 Mi Retail Partner Stores in Nepal and is growing by the day.

The brand also sells its products across four authorized Mi Stores in New Road, Chabahil, Pulchowk and Biratnagar. Mi Stores are an extension of Xiaomi’s flagship Mi Homes that can be seen across the globe. Mi Stores in Nepal symbolize the brand’s immense progress in developing effective New Retail measures across multiple cities to give an enhanced consumer brand experience.

The Siddhartha Gallery at Babarmahal is currently hosting the ‘Contemporary Print Art Exhibition’ featuring 98 artworks of 46 artists who use various forms of printmaking in their artworks.

The artworks—based on multiple themes—are common in the sense that they all project the culture and way of life of Nepali communities. The exhibition showcases artworks by local artists including Anil Machamasi, Teesha Shrestha, Birendra Pratap Singh, Krishna Raut, Bidhyaman Tamang, Rukumani Shrestha, and Bhishan Rajbhandari. All participating artists use their own technics to create printed artworks that delve into the lives and livelihoods of people.

The exhibition runs through till April 13.

Friday, March 13: 

Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, discharges Prime Minister KP Oli after his 12-day hospital stay following a kidney transplant.

Saturday, March 14:

PM Oli talks to party co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, advisors, and key ministers, and instructs everyone to come up with a comprehensive strategy to fight against a possible corona outbreak.

Sunday, March 15:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi organizes a video conference of leaders of all eight SAARC member states to chalk out a common strategy to fight the spread of coronavirus in the region. Modi proposes a coronavirus fund, and makes an offer of $10m for it.

Monday, March 16 

Speaker of the lower house Agni Sapkota says he cannot table the bill on Millennium Challenge Corporation without agreements on it with both the ruling Nepal Communist Party as well as the opposition Nepali Congress.

Tuesday, March 17  

Sarad Singh Bhandari takes over as the leader of the six-member presidium of Rastriya Janata Party Nepal. The party has a system of rotational leadership. Ministry of Education instructs private schools to stop enrolling student for the new academic year.

Wednesday, March 18 

The government takes a number of decisions to prevent the spread of coronavirus, including cancellation of Secondary Education Examinations (SEE) and banning all incoming passengers from Europe, the United Kingdom, the Gulf, West Asia, and Iran.

Thursday, March 19

Different associations of share investors submit a memo to Nepal Stock Exchange asking for a stop in stock-trading in the view of the government directive to limit public gatherings to 25 persons.

Q.    What’s the favorite thing in your closet right now?
A.    A green semi woolen sweater that my grandfather passed on to me.

Q.    What are you holding on to that you need to let go of? 
A.    I hoard Apple products. I need to let go of 4 Macbooks and iPhones right now. (Wanted to say past relationships but again it’s too cliché.) 

Q.    What is your pet peeve?
A.    When someone I am talking to is too busy on their phones. It’s so annoying and irritating.

Q.    If you could have any three people (dead or alive) over for dinner, who would they be?
A.    Robin Williams, Arun Thapa, Kobe Bryant.

Q.    What’s on your playlist right now?
A.    Solomun / Lane 8 / Dennis Lloyd

Q.    If you had to work but didn’t need the money, what would you choose to do?
A.    Cut coconuts off trees somewhere in the Caribbean

Q.    Iphone or Android?
A.    Android for now

Q.    Is there an app that you hate but use anyways?
A.    Smoke Free (I haven’t smoked for over two years)

Q.    What is the stupidest thing you’ve done because someone dared you to?
A.    Ate a live, walking cockroach in high school over a bet.

Q.    You get an elephant. You can’t get rid of it. What would you do with it?
A.    Invite kids from all over the country to come play with it.

Bottlers Nepal Limited—the authorized bottlers of the Coca-Cola Company—has started Shopkeeper Training and Resources “STAR” Program that aims to economically empower five million women across the value chain by 2020. The program aims to provide Nepali women retailers with the skills, techniques and tools required to succeed in the dynamic retail setup of Nepal, focusing on four key areas: shop management, stock management, customer management, and finance management. A joint Bottlers Nepal’s Public Affairs Communication and Sustainability (PACS) team and the sales team has reached 15 cities and several smaller towns in Nepal to train over 5,000 
women retailers.

THE MENU
Chef’s Special:
-    Pork Thenthuk 
-    Jhol momo 
-    Chicken Fan Baifan
Opening hours:
10:00 am-10:00 pm
Location:
Baluwatar
Cards:
Accepted
Meal for 2:
Rs 1,200
Reservations:
9851228014

One of the largest selections of beer available in Nepal,” the Ventures Café boasts on its Facebook page. A tall claim, you’d probably want to test. Located at Baluwatar (near the main gate of the Prime Minister’s official residence), the Ventures Café is a restaurant that serves a fusion of Oriental and Nepali cuisines and also provides a comfortable ambience for entrepreneurs to co-work and chill. 
With snacks starting at Rs 100 and main courses not exceeding Rs 500, Ventures has to be one of the most affordable restaurants around for food and ambience. Even the drink (alcoholic, non-alcoholic, and coffee) prices give fierce competition to other restaurants in the area. Perhaps why it has thrived all these years without much fanfare. A steady customer base, we suspect, is its secret sauce. 

Q.    Summer or winter?
A.    Summer please! I catch cold and feelings quickly.

Q.    If you had to buy something for the person you love, what would it be?
A.    Fooooooodddd. I’ll give something I want in return gift.

Q.    What has been the funniest prank played on you? 
A.    Maybe not the funniest but recently in an event I announced bingo tickets were available. One drunk uncle said “the ticket is worth Rs 50.” I should’ve known he is “that drunk uncle at the wedding”. He pulled a good one, I must say.

Q.    If you could dis-invent one thing? 
A.    Hair straighteners! I want people to rock their natural hair—curls, wavy, bushy whatever.

Q.    What makes someone a hero?
A.    A heart that isn’t jealous. Someone who can be happy at others’ success is 
my hero.

Q.    What are the qualities you enjoy in a friend?
A.    Humor for sure. I want my friend to insult me back when I insult them. We laugh together that way. A friend that buys food. My best friend does somersaults and backflips when I am upset. So may be a little more drama, pretty please.

Q.    In what situation or place would you feel the most out of place in?
A.    After I started my professional life, I have become a potato. I go with everything.
Q.    What would you stockpile if you found out they weren’t going to sell it anymore?
A.    For now sanitizers and masks.

Q.    Shake hands or Namaste?
A.    Kisses and hugs? I am a chuppa kinda person.

In Soru Rural Municipality of Mugu district, women have multiple responsibilities. Most of the village men have gone to the proverbial ‘Kala Pahad’ (India) or other countries in search of jobs. So women here have to handle not just their families but other traditionally ‘male’ responsibilities as well.

Take construction. Women are working as construction workers in a number of local projects like the 1,100-meter irrigation canal from Majhgatta to Ekal Katiya of Soru-9, and another 1,100-meter canal from Bhuwane Khola to Naidhunga of Khatyang-2. Of the 484 laborers in the two projects, 330 are women.

“Men are out of the country. Even if they return, they won’t work as construction laborers,” says Gorikala Kami of Soru-9. “Development projects in the village are mostly in the hands of women these days.”

“This kind of out-of-home work gives us a unique outlet,” says Kami. “It pays as well.” The project office pays them through a bank, so women now have their own bank accounts. It helps them save money, and keeps them from being cheated by contractors, as happened when they used to get their wages in cash. The World Food Program is funding both the projects.

“As male members are away, many development projects in the village are unfinished,” says Ramdevi Yogi of Soru-9. “We women will finish what they started”.