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The first visit to Pakistan by a top Indian diplomat in nearly 10 years was an ‘ice breaker’, the information minister said Wednesday, as regional heads of governments gathered for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan are bitter adversaries with longstanding political tensions, having fought several wars and numerous smaller skirmishes since they were carved out of the subcontinent’s partition in 1947.

“Neither us nor them requested a bilateral meeting... but I believe his arrival here is an ice breaker,” the information minister Attaullah Tarar said on the sidelines of the summit in the capital Islamabad. “Yesterday, when all the leaders were being welcomed and there were handshakes, I think positive images were sent out globally.”

Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif greeted each other with a handshake and somber expressions at the start of an official dinner for the visiting leaders of the SCO bloc on Tuesday.

Relations between neighbors India and Pakistan have been particularly sour since 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked the limited autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir. Modi’s 2019 move was celebrated across India but led Pakistan to suspend bilateral trade and downgrade diplomatic ties with New Delhi. The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed by both in full, with each accusing the other of stoking militancy there.

Premiers from SCO member states China, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan all attended the meeting in a Pakistani capital that was locked down by tight security.

In his address, Jaishankar stressed the importance of “mutual trust, friendship and good neighborliness.” “If activities across borders are characterized by terrorism, extremism and separatism, they are hardly likely to encourage trade, energy flows, connectivity and people-to-people exchanges in parallel,” he said.

Sharif opened the meeting on Wednesday with an address in which he called on the China- and Russia-led bloc to ensure ‘collective security’ and cooperation for “sustainable development and prosperity for the SCO region.” He called on leaders to prevent militant groups from flourishing in Afghanistan. “The international community must step forward” to press the Taliban government and “ensure Afghan soil is not misused for terrorism against its neighbors,” Sharif said.

Afghanistan, at a crossroads between the bloc’s members, presents “an invaluable and rare opportunity for trade and transit benefitting all SCO member states,” he said. It has observer status at the SCO but has not been invited to international conferences since the Taliban ousted the Western-backed government in Kabul three years ago. 

AFP

Inflation moderated to 3.85 percent in mid-September compared to 8.19 percent a year ago. 

According to the Current Macroeconomic Situation Report for the first two months of fiscal year 2024/25, food and beverage inflation eased to 5.03 percent, compared to 9.77 percent last year, while non-food and service inflation dropped to 3.19 percent from 7.19 percent. 

Among food items, the price of pulses and legumes saw the highest increase at 10.8 percent, followed by vegetables at 9.84 percent and cereal grains at 9.34 percent. However, the price of spices decreased by 2.69 percent. In the non-food category, the price of miscellaneous goods and services increased by 8.71 percent, while clothing and footwear saw a 6.08 percent rise.

Inflation was highest in Sudurpashchim Province at 5.90 percent, while the Kathmandu Valley recorded an inflation rate of 3.49 percent, according to the report.

Trade deficit widens

Nepal’s trade deficit widened in the review period as imports recorded nominal growth, while exports declined. According to the report, Nepal’s merchandise exports contracted by 5.1 percent to Rs 25.09bn during the first two months of 2024/25, compared to a 7.8 percent decline in the same period last year. While exports to India decreased by 4.5 percent, exports to China plummeted by 45.3 percent. Exports of key products like cardamom and zinc sheets fell, although products like tea and shoes saw growth.

On the import side, merchandise imports increased by 1.1 percent to Rs 262.54bn. Imports from China surged by 11.9 percent, while imports from India fell by 0.1 percent. The trade deficit widened by 1.8 percent to Rs 237.45bn in the two-month period. 

Remittance inflows surge

Remittance inflows saw a strong growth of 15.2 percent to Rs 263.14bn over the first two months of 2024/25. In the first month of the current fiscal year, Nepalis in foreign countries sent home Rs 136.93bn.

In US dollar terms, remittance inflows reached $1.96bn, up from $1.73bn in the same period last year. 

The number of Nepali workers taking foreign employment approval also increased during the review period with 76,485 youths taking first-time approval for foreign employment.

Foreign exchange reserves improve

The gross foreign exchange reserves grew by 5.5 percent to Rs 2,152.53bn as of mid-Sept 2024, up from Rs 2,041.10bn in mid-July 2024. In US dollar terms, reserves increased to $16.04bn. 

The foreign exchange reserves are sufficient to cover 16.8 months of prospective merchandise imports and 13.7 months of merchandise and services imports, according to the report

BoP, current account in surplus

The Balance of Payments (BOP) was in a surplus of Rs 101.77bn in the review period, up from Rs 55.1bn in the corresponding period last year. 

The current account also remained at a surplus of Rs 49.69bn, compared to a surplus of Rs 23.97bn in the previous year.

On the fiscal front, government expenditure increased by 4.9 percent to Rs 137.55bn in the first two months of 2024/25. The recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure remained at Rs 82.99bn and Rs 14.89bn, respectively. While recurrent expenditure fell by 5.3 percent, capital expenditure improved by 82.4 percent compared to last year. Revenue collection recorded a growth of 17.9 percent to Rs 166.39bn during the period. Tax revenue increased by 13.5 percent to Rs 145.19bn, while non-tax revenue surged 71.5 percent to Rs 21.19bn compared to last year.

At least 10 Indian flights have received hoax bomb threats over the past 48 hours, leading to long delays and diversions. On Tuesday, Singapore’s Air Force sent two fighter jets to escort an Air India Express plane away from populated areas following a bomb threat.

Hours before that, an Air India plane from Delhi to Chicago had to land at a Canadian airport as a precautionary measure.

Hoax bomb threats to airlines are not unusual in India but it’s not clear what triggered the sudden surge since Monday. Officials from the government’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security did not respond to the BBC’s emails for comment.

Apart from Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Akasa Air flights also received threats.

On Monday, three international flights that took off from Mumbai were diverted or delayed after an X (formerly Twitter) handle posted threats. Police have detained a teenager in connection with this. On Tuesday, seven flights, including the two Air India planes, were affected by the threats issued by another X handle which has now been suspended. Screenshots of some of the posts show the user had tagged the airline and local police and mentioned the flight number.

Air India said in a statement that it was cooperating with authorities to identify the people behind the threats and would consider legal action to recover damages incurred. 

Agencies

Cheering crowds hailed an 18-year-old Nepali mountaineer as a hero as he returned home Monday after breaking the record for the youngest person to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks. Nima Rinji Sherpa reached the summit of Tibet’s 8,027-meter-high ShishaPangma on Oct 9, completing his mission to stand on the world’s highest peaks.

On Monday, he returned from China to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, where scores waited to see him. “I am feeling very happy,” he told AFP, draped in traditional Buddhist scarves and garlands of marigold flowers, as he emerged to loud cheers at the airport. “Thank you so much everyone,” he said to his supporters, beaming a wide grin.

Sherpa hugged his family while others rushed to offer him scarves and flowers. He later waved to the crowd out of a car sunroof, while proudly holding the national flag.

Nepal’s climbing community also welcomed several others who returned after completing the summit of 14 peaks. Summiting all 14 ‘eight-thousanders’ is considered the peak of mountaineering aspirations, with all the peaks located in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, straddling Nepal, Pakistan, Tibet and India. Climbers cross ‘death zones’ where there is not enough oxygen in the air to sustain human life for long periods.

Italian climber Reinhold Messner first completed the feat in 1986, and only around 50 others have successfully followed in his footsteps. Many elite climbers have died in the pursuit.

‘Trailblazers’

All of the mountains are in the Himalayas and neighboring Karakoram range, which spans Nepal, China, India and Pakistan. In the last few years, mountaineers are expected to reach the ‘true summit’ of every mountain, which many climbers of the previous generation had missed.

Sherpa is no stranger to the mountains, hailing from a family of record-holding climbers, who also now run Nepal’s largest mountaineering expedition company. Raised in bustling Kathmandu, Sherpa initially preferred to play football or shoot videos. But two years ago, he put his camera down to pursue mountaineering.

Sherpa, who already holds multiple records from his ascents of dozens of peaks, started high-altitude climbing at the age of 16, by climbing Mount Manaslu in Aug 2022. Nepali climbers—usually ethnic Sherpas from the valleys around Everest—are considered the backbone of the climbing industry in the Himalayas. They carry the majority of equipment and food, fixing ropes and repairing ladders.

Long in the shadows as supporters of foreign climbers, they are slowly being recognised in their own right. “I want to show the younger generation of Sherpas that they can rise above the stereotype of being only support climbers and embrace their potential as top-tier athletes, adventurers, and creators,” he said in a statement soon after his final summit. “We are not just guides. We are trailblazers.”

In recent years, climbers like Sherpa have set record after record, and are hopeful their feats will inspire the next generation of Nepali mountaineers. The record was previously held by another Nepali climber, Mingma Gyabu ‘David’ Sherpa. He achieved it in 2019, at the age of 30. 

AFP 

Nepali rescuers dangling from a rope beneath a helicopter swooped in to retrieve the frozen corpses of five Russian high-altitude climbers killed earlier this month, mountain officials said Wednesday. The five Russians went missing on Oct 6 during an attempt to summit the world’s seventh-highest mountain Dhaulagiri, an 8,167-meter Himalayan peak.

Bad weather delayed efforts to collect the bodies, which lay on an icy slope about 7,000 meters high. “The five bodies have been retrieved through a long line rescue, and were brought to the base camp,” Nima Nuru Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, told AFP. “They are now being brought to Kathmandu.”

Long line rescue is a dangerous operation used only when the terrain is too challenging for a helicopter to land, with a specialized rescuer attached to a rope. As well as the helicopter pilot, the rescue team included two mountain guides and the long line rescue specialist.

Hundreds of people from around the world travel to the Himalayas each year for the autumn climbing season in Nepal. The country is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks, and foreign climbers that flock to its mountains are a major source of revenue for the country.

Dhaulagiri’s peak was first scaled in 1960 by a Swiss-Austrian team and has since been climbed by hundreds of people.

Gold price has set a new record in the domestic market today.

According to the Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 161, 800 per tola. It was traded at Rs 160, 500 per tola on Tuesday.

Likewise, the silver is being traded at Rs 1, 925 per tola.

National Assembly (NA) Chairman Narayan Prasad Dahal held bilateral meetings with the President of the National Council of Switzerland, and the leaders of parliamentary delegations from India, China, Thailand, and the Philippines on the sidelines of the 149th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday.

Dahal is currently in Geneva, leading the Nepali delegation to the IPU 149th Assembly.

Chairperson Dahal held a bilateral meeting with Eric Nussbaumer, President of the National Council of Swiss Confederation. The two leaders expressed commitment to enhancing inter-parliamentary exchanges and cooperation in areas of climate change, mountain conservation and disaster risk reduction, strengthening federalism, and the Swiss development cooperation in Nepal including in the peace process, the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva said in a press release.

Later in the evening, Chairman Dahal held a bilateral meeting with the leader of the Indian delegation, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Discussions focused on promoting cooperation in the bilateral, regional and multilateral fronts to strengthen democratic institutions.

Earlier today, the National Assembly Chair held a bilateral meeting with the leader of the Chinese delegation Tian Xuejun. The two sides discussed the need for parliamentary exchanges and cooperation to address the common challenges such as climate change, inequality and digital divide while contributing to promoting peace and stability.

During the bilateral meeting with Mongkol Surasajita, President of the Senate of Thailand, Dahal emphasized the historical and cultural ties between Nepal and Thailand deep rooted in the ideals of Buddhism. The two leaders discussed enhancing parliamentary exchanges and cooperation to promote peace, democracy and development.

The Chairperson of the National Assembly of Nepal also held a bilateral meeting with Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Speaker of the House of Representative of the Republic of the Philippines and discussed promoting inter-parliamentary cooperation to promote peace, democracy and development in the world.

Dengue is spreading rapidly with the number of infected people reaching 19,599 throughout the country, according to the latest data of the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD).

The EDCD said nine people have died of the disease so far and it has spread in 76 districts of the country. Dengue has spread the most in Kathmandu with 3,103 cases, followed by Kaski with 2,847 cases, Tanahun with 2,107 cases and Parbat with 1,562 cases.

Similarly, Chitwan reports 971 cases, Lalitpur 827 cases, Gorkha 588 cases, Baglung 610 cases, Bhaktapur 355 cases and Syangja 335 cases.

Dr Sher Bahadur Pun, Research Unit Coordinator at the Shukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital Teku, said that the risk of dengue rises with the beginning of the post-monsoon period.

According to him, the number of people suffering from dengue is increasing immediately after Dashain. This indicates that dengue is spreading at the community level.

Dengue was confirmed in more than nearly 52, 000 people throughout the country from April 14, 2023 until January 14, 2024. Twenty people had died of the infection in that period.