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Thousands of devotees from various parts of Kathmandu and neighboring districts thronged Balaju Park this morning to take part in the traditional ritual shower at Baisdhara.

The festival, also known as Balaju Baisdhara (Phuti Pun) Mela, is celebrated on the Baisakh Shukla Purnima every year.

It is believed that taking a holy bath at Baisdhara (22 stone spouts) would heal various diseases.

Organizers expect that 230, 000 people would participate in the annual festival.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 2, 700 per tola in the domestic market on Tuesday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow metal is being traded at Rs 135, 500 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 138, 200 per tola on Monday.

Similarly, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 134, 850 per tola. It was traded at Rs 137, 750 per tola.

Likewise, the price of silver has dropped by Rs 45 and is being traded at Rs 1, 660 per tola.

Abinash Shrestha has been involved in the fashion industry for the past 12 years. With a Master’s in Business Management, he initially envisioned joining his father’s import and export business. However, his passion for fashion and style proved too strong to ignore. As the proprietor of Ariri Boutique, Shrestha has made a significant mark in the beauty pageant industry, having served as the official stylist for Miss Universe Nepal from 2020 to 2023. Recently, Shrestha was honored with the prestigious Fashion Stylist Award by Dream Search Agency. Ken Subedi converses with Shrestha on various dimensions of fashion.

What inspired you to join the fashion industry?

My friend introduced me to Rihanna in my school days, and I was fascinated by two things: her voice and her fashion sense. It was then that I started decoding and understanding style, sensibility, and began linking people's personalities to how they dress up. The art of comprehending individuals, their fashion choices, and the unique voice reflected through their fashion fascinated me deeply. Hence, from the very early stage, I became involved in fashion shows, beauty pageants, and took on assignments as a stylist for actors, models, and even business personalities. My friend, Nagma Shrestha, Miss Earth 2012, and the first-ever Miss Universe Nepal, has also been a huge inspiration. She helped me navigate the fashion scene and understand the challenges and opportunities. Today, I own Ariri Boutique, which helps people get closer to their style, and we have been running for the past four years.

What do you think of the fashion scene in Nepal?

The fashion scene in Nepal is constantly evolving, and I find it exhilarating. I admire how today’s youngsters know what they want and have realized that fashion can be a means of rebellion against things they don’t believe in while also fostering alliances with causes that truly matter. Fashion serves as a unifier—it’s a language that connects people. However, I personally feel that our fashion is mostly borrowed, and we still need to find our unique voice, that edge that defines us. With our rich culture, textiles, and patterns, we have the potential to revolutionize the fashion industry. But for that, we need to make bold choices—not merely follow trends from elsewhere but market and revolutionize the fashion and style inherent to our culture.

Do you think you need to study fashion to be a fashion designer or stylist?

I studied business management, and here I am today, running a boutique and making a living out of fashion. While having a degree in fashion is beneficial, an understanding of fashion and style is essential. Observing how people react to fashion and style and finding the right balance between creativity and fashion are crucial. It’s also important to engage with diverse individuals, draw inspiration from them, and incorporate their stories into your work. For instance, every time I sketch, I consider the stories of my clients—their love stories, realities, challenges, and their go-getter attitude. These attributes and stories shape my designs.

Is the fashion industry profitable?

Yes, it is, and it will be if you find that unique entry point. For me, I dabble in both traditional and modern fashion. My boutique specializes in both traditional attire, and I don’t shy away from using creative textiles to design modern jackets and skirts. Additionally, I like to diversify and not limit myself to one theme or comfort fashion only. Thus, catering to both women’s and men’s wear. However, the initial days are always challenging. You may have great ideas, but you might not have a market. Hence, it’s essential to connect with people, understand the market, and ask yourself that one hard question, “if this idea doesn’t work, will you have the courage to wake up tomorrow and start anew?” I do that every single day, and for ideas that don’t work, I know tomorrow is a new day, and I will definitely try to make things happen.

As the climate crisis is taking a toll on people and the planet with an increasing number of severe incidents, the research and studies have also been continued with focus on how the world could adopt better climate actions and minimize emergencies in number and scale.

One of the measures the researchers have underlined lately is collective initiatives with a blend of indigenous knowledge and use of modern technology so that climate actions could be made more participatory and result-oriented.

A recent report published by UNDP Accelerator Labs and the Nesta analyzed the cases from the Global South showing how 'collective intelligence' is applied to fulfill gaps in climate adaptation and mitigation.

The report, 'Untapped: Collective Intelligence for Climate Action', implies 'collective intelligence' as a synergic approach where data, people and technology work in tandem. "At its simplest, the 'collective intelligence' can be understood as the enhanced capacity that is created when people work together, often with the help of technology, to mobilize a wider range of information, ideas and insights." It further argues the collective intelligence is resulted from a combination of these factors where it ensures more than the sum of their parts.

With this, the document has kept in center human experiences, traditional practices and exchange of knowledge on dealing with climate adversities, which can be further optimized by the use of modern technology, including artificial intelligence (AI). The concept of citizen scientist is optimized by it.

"AI is being applied to help make sense from and use large volumes of data, while generative AI techniques are transforming the nature of content and knowledge generation," the report underlined.

As per study document, there is a 'Bioleft' platform in South America, which is facilitating farmers to know about climate resilient crops as the platform is informing about open-source repositories of local seed varieties and collaborative seed breeding among them. "The platform enables geo-referencing of seeds and records their transfer under an official Bioleft license," the report mentioned. 

Similarly, in another case of climate smart agriculture, the story about Water-Associated Infectious Diseases in India is mentioned as a 'rare example of disease surveillance for waterborne diseases'. This scheme applies Smartphone App to map vulnerability at community like cholera occurrence and other waterborne disease. The information about the sanitary condition of people is available through data crowd-sourcing with the use of App.

'DengueChat' is another digital initiative put in place in the Latin American project, which the report says, 'applies citizen science' to control disease outbreaks at a hyper local level'.

The tech initiative to protect biodiversity is also showcased in the document. The 'CyberTracker Kalahari' focused in the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, adopted indigenous knowledge and practices on biodiversity are monitored.

The report also briefly mentions Nepal in relation to use of technology on land management data. "In Nepal, government representatives have committed to exploring the use of the LANDex tool for official data collection. These tools provide groups that are typically overlooked in local land management disputes with the means to build an evidence base to help them make their case with decision makers or other stakeholders," it added.

 The report is coauthored by Aleks Berditchevskaia, Alex Albert, Kathy Peach, Gina Lucarelli, and Alberto Cottica.

Emir of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is arriving in Nepal later this afternoon on a two-day state visit at the cordial invitation of President Ram Chandra Paudel.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed that the Qatari Emir will hold a meeting with President Paudel at his office, Sheetal Niwas. The President is scheduled to host a state banquet in honor of the Emir.

Similarly, the distinguished guest from Qatar will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Wednesday.

Following the talks, both leaders will witness the signing ceremony of bilateral agreements and memorandums of understanding, the Foreign Ministry added.

The Qatari Emir is scheduled to depart from Kathmandu on April 24.

The government has decided to endorse various memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to be signed between the Government of Nepal and the Government of Qatar.

The MoUs are going to be signed during the two-day state visit of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, 

At the invitation of President Ram  Chandra Paudel, the Emir of Qatar, Al Thani, is visiting Nepal on April 23 and 24. Accordingly, the council of ministers meeting today decided to give a public holiday on April 23.

According to Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma, the Cabinet also decided to approve the state visit program of the Emir of Qatar and for the Prime Minister to lead the talks with the Qatari side.

The memorandum of understanding is being signed on cooperation between Nepal and Qatar in the field of youth and sports, and in the field of education and scientific research.

Government Spokesperson Sharma informed that the Cabinet meeting decided to accept 9.91 million Swiss francs from the Swiss government for the implementation of the trekking-based tourism development project in Koshi Province and 9.8 million US dollars from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) for Pokhara Metropolitan City.

Similarly, the meeting approved the preliminary agenda of the 12th meeting of the Nepal-China Tibet Trade Facilitation Committee to be held in Kathmandu on April 27 and 28 and decided to form a talks team under the coordination of the joint secretary of Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies to participate in the meeting.

Sharing the decisions of the April 18 Cabinet meeting, Government Spokesperson Sharma said that the government decided that the Central Post Office, Postal Directorate and District Post Offices will operate on public holidays as well. Likewise, Assistant Auditor General Baikuntha Bahadur Adhikari has been promoted to the post of Deputy Auditor General and Murari Prasad Kharel has been appointed as the Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission.

Songwriter Dr Hemanta Khatiwada’s book of Hindi songs ‘Kaisa Maan Mastana Pyare” has been published.

In this book, Khatiwada has included mainly the songs about love and romance.  

There are 200 Hindi songs in this book. The book has 200 pages. The price of this book is INR 200.

The songs are written differently from the popular tradition of love songs.

“Love is not a surficial subject; it has its own philosophy and I also prefer writing love songs by connecting with the philosophy,” Khatiwada said.

I hope that the book published by Om Publications Delhi will be popular among the Indian readers.

The composition and presentation of the songs are artistic and symbolic.

The words are simple but the emotions carried by the songs are heavy. In his songs, the physiology of love has been described in a unique way.

He has also written some songs about marriage.

Various forms of love have been explained from different angles in the songs written in this book.

This book has become a collection of romantic songs. The lyrics of the songs have helped increase the weight of the book.

Dozens of songs of Khatiwada are popular and he is the youngest songwriter of Nepal.

President Ram Chandra Paudel is to welcome Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, at the Tribhuvan International Airport.

A source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that President Paudel will welcome Qatari Emir who is arriving on a two-day state visit to Nepal on Tuesday.

The government has announced a public holiday tomorrow for his welcome.

During his visit to Nepal, he will hold a meeting with President Paudel at Sheetal Niwas.

President Paudel will host a State Banquet in honor of the Emir of the State of Qatar.