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The price of gold has increased by Rs 600 per tola in the domestic market on Friday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 119, 000 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 118, 400 per tola on Thursday.

Similarly, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 118, 450 per tola. It was traded at Rs 117, 850 per tola.

Meanwhile, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,390 per tola today.

Nepal lost to Jordan in the penalties in the final match of West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) Women's Championship held at the Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The match had kicked off at 9:45 pm NST on Thursday.

Jordan, the sixth time winner of the title, defeated Nepal by 5-3 in the tiebreaker. Nepal stood the first runner up in their first attempt in the WAFF Women's Championship.

For Nepal, Gita Rana, Dipa Shahi and Hira Bhujel scored in the penalties but Amrita Jaisi could not make it happen. However, Jordon scored all five goals in the penalties.

Earlier, Nepal had led 1-0 until the first half of the match.

Sabita Ranamagar scored in the 29th minute of the first half, with a beautiful volley from outside the D-box.

But Nepal's leading position could not win the game as Jordon's Lana Feras equalized the game with a goal in the 74th minute. Jordon scored yet another goal in the 89th minute. For Jordon, Sarah Abu Sabbah contributed the second goal. But the game ended with equal 2-2 as Nepal's Gita Rana scored a goal in the penalty during the additional time of the second half of the match.

Earlier, Nepal defeated Lebanon 2-1 in the semi-finals while Jordan defeated Palestine by 5-0 to reach the final. Nepal is in 115th position in FIFA ranking while Jordan is in 74th position. The Nepali team is led by Captain Angela Tumbapo Subba.

The government has begun preparations for the budget of the fiscal year 2024-25. The National Planning Commission (NPC) has set a budget ceiling of Rs 1.8trn for the upcoming fiscal. Minister for Finance Prakash Sharan Mahat outlined the principles and priorities of the new budget in parliament three months ahead of the budget day. The government was presenting policies and priorities of the Appropriation Bill in parliament mere two weeks before the budget day so far. This allows lawmakers more time for deliberation on the principles and priorities of the budget. The government has made significant changes in the budget process to prepare a more realistic budget.

Many economists have described the budget for the current fiscal year as ambitious, stating that the government’s success depends on its ability to manage expenditures in line with estimated resources. However, the government fell short on this front. During the first half of 2023-24, the government could mobilize only 40 percent of its revenue target, with capital expenditure progressing at a dismal 21 percent and recurrent expenditure at 44 percent. Consequently, the government was compelled to downsize the budget by 13 percent, or Rs 221bn, through the midterm review in the second week of February. This adjustment reduced recurrent expenditure to Rs 1,007.45m and downsized capital expenditure to Rs 254.13bn. During the mid-term review, Mahat acknowledged the government’s failure to achieve significant improvements despite earnest efforts to increase revenue and control expenditures.

Realizing the demographic dividend must be a priority for the government to ensure the success and efficacy of the budget for the next fiscal year. At the same time, public expenditure must be directed toward priority projects that support production growth. The government should prioritize projects ready for implementation with assured resources. On its part, the finance ministry must resist pressure to include populist programs from political leaders. The budget should aim to maintain a balance between government income and expenditure to alleviate mounting pressure on public finances. Moreover, it should strive to achieve high economic growth and job creation, and bring policies and programs to create demand in the market to give a new impetus to the economy.

National Assembly (NA) lawmakers, speaking in the discussions on the principles and priorities of the Appropriation Bill for the upcoming fiscal year, called for giving emphasis on employment generation and youth mobilization by upholding good governance.

Finance Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat had presented the Principles and Priorities of Appropriation Bill for next fiscal year in the meeting of the National Assembly, the upper house of the Federal Parliament, on February 26.

Taking part in the debate in the NA meeting today, lawmakers underscored on making the budget functional and on improvement in the tendency of getting the budget passed from Parliament by issuing whip, but not obeying the suggestions in the course of implementing it.

Similarly, they emphasized on giving high priority to the agriculture sector, ensuring security to the health workers, making clear the responsibilities on service delivery of the three tiers of government, bringing a plan for consumption of electricity produced in Nepal within the country itself and on also increasing capital expenditure and revenue collection.

Prakash Pantha, Dilkumari Rawal (Parbati), Dr Khimlal Devkota among other lawmakers participated in the discussions.

Dr Devkota on the occasion called attention of the government, saying those ministers who were said to participate in the meeting were not present in the meeting.

President of the Legislation Management Committee, Jayanti Devi Rai, presented the Bill on Anti-Money Laundering and the Promotion of Business Environment, 2079 BS in the meeting today.

She also presented the report of the onsite study programme on law-making process and practices of the local levels.

Government's attention drawn on making provisions for drinking water and irrigation

Similarly, the upper house lawmakers have drawn the attention of the government towards the difficulties faced by the people for lack of drinking water and irrigation facilities in the Tarai-Madhes region.

They expressed their concern on this issue while speaking in the 'zero hour' in the meeting of the National Assembly today.

Lawmaker Tulasa Kumari Dahal called on the government to make arrangements for providing pure drinking water to the people in the Madhes. She also stressed on conservation of the Chure ecosystem by stopping its over-exploitation and on making arrangements for irrigation in the Madhes which is the 'breadbasket' of the country.

Lawmaker Jaga Prasad Sharma called for putting an end to the trend of meager expenditure of the budget appropriated for big projects, drawing the government's attention to finding a solution to this problem.

Taraman Swar called on the government to expedite the construction of the Seti and Mahakali highways, considered as the backbone for the economy and development of the Sudurpaschim and to ensure budget for these road projects in the next fiscal year's budget.

Bhagawati Neupane urged the government to develop the birthplace of pioneer poet of Nepali as a tourism destination. Bimala Ghimire drew the attention of the government for immediately addressing the demands of farmers and the victims of usurious lending.

Lawmaker Sumitra BC called for immediately taking ahead the process for reconstruction of houses for the earthquake-affected people of Jajarkot who are still living under tents even after nearly four months since the disaster.

Report Study and Implementation Recommendation Committee under Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) former governor Deependra Bahadur Kshetry-led Nepal Airlines Corporation Structural Reforms Study Committee has submitted its fourth report.

The Report Study and Implementation Recommendation Committee led by former Captain Kul Bahadur Limbu submitted the report jointly to Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Sudan Kirati, Secretary Deepak Kafle and Executive Chairperson of Nepal Airlines Corporation, Yubraj Adhikari today.

The report has mainly incorporated four points—making internal audits effective, forming an accounts committee to make decisions of board of directors and NAC's governance effectively, selling shares of Soaltee Hotel to make NAC financially strong and formulating a realistic action plan of NAC.

On the occasion, Minister Kirati directed the NAC Executive Chairperson for effective implementation of the report.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 28. 68 points to close at 1,972. 09 points on Thursday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 4. 79 points to close at 351. 65 points.

A total of 7,446,991-unit shares of 309 companies were traded for Rs 2. 59 billion.

Meanwhile, Bottlers Nepal (Balaju) Limited (BNL) was the top gainer today with its price surging by 10. 00 percent.

Likewise, Joshi Hydropower Development Company Ltd (JOSHI) was the top loser as its price fell by 10. 00 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 09 trillion.

Victims of cooperatives, microcredit institutions, and loan sharks have not been able to get justice despite organizing repeated protests.

When the victims launch protests, the government agrees to meet their demands. However, these agreements are not implemented. This series of neglect has been going on for years, the victims say. 

Cooperative, microfinance and landshark victims are presently in Kathmandu to draw the attention of the government to implement past agreements.

Cooperative victims have been participating in a sit-in protest on the premises of the Department of Cooperatives for the past 10 days. Earlier, they launched the protest in the first week of August. The government reached a seven-point agreement with the victims on the same day. “But since the government didn’t implement the agreement reached seven months ago, we were forced to take to the streets again,” Harish Chandra Shrestha, coordinator of Cooperative Depositors Protection National Campaign, said.

Although the government had formed a task force to study the agreement and make suggestions for its implementation, the victims say the task force's report has been gathering dust at the Office of the Prime Minister.

The government had agreed with the cooperatives to immediately initiate the process of setting up a Deposit and Credit Protection Fund. It had also agreed to work in coordination with the Troubled Cooperatives Management Committee to prepare a work plan to return deposits parked in troubled cooperatives like Oriental Cooperatives. Likewise, the government had agreed to establish a Credit Information Center and a Credit Recovery Tribunal.

There are more than 32,000 cooperatives in the country with more than 7.3m members. Out of these cooperatives, around 500 are in trouble. Of them, 17 have been declared as troubled.

According to the Troubled Cooperatives Management Committee, deposits worth Rs 13.14bn of 28,272 are parked in 15 out of these 17 troubled cooperatives.

“Declaring cooperatives as troubled alone is insufficient. The government should return common people’s deposits and interest. The government can recover that amount from the cooperative promoters later on,” Shrestha added.

Over 1.4m victims have already become members of the national campaign, Shrestha said. These victims have deposits ranging from a few thousand rupees to Rs 320m in these cooperatives. The total liability of these cooperatives is around Rs 65bn. Each of these cooperatives has a minimum of 5,000 members.

A study conducted recently by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) showed cooperatives may have been used for money laundering. Coordinator Shrestha also doesn’t rule this out. “But the number could be very low,” he added.

Shrestha, who sold four anas of land to deposit money in Oriental Cooperatives, said the government had agreed to return 40 percent of depositors’ money from its funds and make the promoters pay the remaining 60 percent. “But not a single agreement was implemented. That is why we had to relaunch the protest,” Shrestha added.

Creditors of microfinance institutions have also been protesting against the government. Over 180,000 creditors of microfinance institutions have joined the Struggle Committee against Microcredit Institutions. About 8,000 of them have taken to the streets, according to Maniram Gyawali, chairman of the campaign.

Microfinance creditors first took to the streets in Gulmi two years ago. Some of the victims even launched a fast-unto-death protest in Kathmandu in August last year. The government had then formed a talks team under Bhupal Baral, the joint secretary of the finance ministry, to hold talks with the microfinance creditors. The committee also formed its talks team under Ramesh Tamang. The two sides held four rounds of meetings. However, the talks failed after the victims complained that the central bank was not sending its representatives to the meeting.

This time, they marched all the way to Kathmandu from Mugling of Chitwan and continued their street protest at Siphal grounds. They even managed to enter the federal parliament premises a few days ago.

Committee chairman Gyawali said they have taken to the streets because microcredit institutions were flouting the central bank’s regulations and levying high-interest rates. “Since microcredit institutions have become unsuccessful in Nepal, we want the government to scrap them,” he added. Gyawali said while microcredit institutions are becoming successful elsewhere, they have failed in Nepal. “70 percent of the total creditors of microfinance institutions in Nepal are not in a position to repay their loans,” he added.

Loan waiver and unfreezing of property pledged as collateral are among the nine-point demands placed by the microcredit creditors.

According to the central bank, three out of 57 microcredit institutions in the country are wholesale lenders.  These microcredit institutions have mobilized Rs 167.64bn in deposits and invested Rs 175.83bn in loans. About 7.49 percent of total lending, or Rs 28.89bn, is non-performing loans.

Minister for Finance Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat has said that the government is serious about the demands of microfinance victims. Mahat also said that all those who have abused microfinance should be brought under the ambit of legal action and the borrowers should also fulfill their obligations.

It has been eight years since loan shark victims first started their protest. The problem, however, still remains unsolved.

The inquiry commission that the government formed last year failed to settle all the problems of the victims. As a result, thousands of victims from all over the country walked all the way to Kathmandu earlier this week for their protest.

Victims said the commission that the government formed earlier has failed to provide justice to all the victims.

The commission collected over 28,000 complaints from the victims. It settled 5,188 of the complaints. Remaining 22,812 are still awaiting decisions on their complaints. Likewise, victims say complaints of over 70,000 victims have yet to be registered.

Avadesh Kushbaha, chairman of a struggle committee formed by the victims, said 92,812 loan shark victims across the country are still awaiting justice.

Loan shark victims have termed the work of the commission as ritualistic. “It collected complaints of about 28,000 victims only. People in rural areas couldn’t register complaints because they didn’t get information,” Jha said. “Only around 5,000 applicants got justice. Others are still awaiting justice.”

After studying the complaints, the commission calculated that the transactions between loan sharks and victims were worth around Rs 5.57bn. The loan sharks have been claiming that they are still to recover Rs 7.62bn extended as loans.

The commission succeeded in unfreezing 218 bigha, 10 kattha, and 7 dhur of land pledged as collateral to loan sharks by the lenders. The commission said in its report that 793 land plots have been returned to victims.

The commission submitted its report to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Nov 12. Dahal subsequently handed over the report for implementation to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs. The commission has said in its report that its implementation could be done by district administration offices by forming a dedicated unit. But the report has been gathering dust at the home ministry.

Home ministry spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said the ministry has handed over the commission’s report to the police for implementation by preparing a new work procedure. “There are rooms for discussions and reconciliations. Works are underway in different districts,” he claimed.

Dr Arun Prasad is a highly experienced surgeon at Apollo Hospitals in New Delhi. He specializes in GI Bariatric and robotic surgery and has been practicing minimal access surgery for over three decades, with the last 12 years focused on robotic surgery. He is well known for his first expertise in Advanced GI Laparoscopy, Thoracoscopy, Single-Incision Laparoscopy (SILS), Bariatric Endoscopy and Robotic Surgery in India.

Recently, he was invited as a guest speaker at the 3rd international conference of Nepalese Association of Surgical Gastroenterology (NASG) held at Malla Hotel to discuss and inform about new technologies and about new innovations in the field. Babita Shrestha from ApEx interviewed Dr Prasad about applicability of AI and robotics in surgeries.

How will robotic surgery benefit the surgeons of Nepal and people?

Right now, Nepal doesn’t do some complicated surgeries, so people have to go to other countries and a bunch come to India. Like, when I mention doing robotic bariatric surgery, I get a patient from Nepal every six months for these complex surgeries. So, if Nepal gets the robotic system, us Indian surgeons can help set it up and then they can do a bunch of those complex surgeries locally. Getting robotic surgery in Nepal is a win-win. It makes treatments more accessible, saves money and helps surgeons gain experience with complex surgeries. Sharing technology at events like these is like sharing knowledge and it’s high time for Nepalese surgeons to join the global trend of using robotics for the benefit of patients’ well being.

How does AI and 3D modeling enhance surgery outcomes?

Well, think of it like when you need kidney surgery, we use a CT scan to create a 3D model. I can do robotic surgery on that 3D model today and do the same surgery on you tomorrow. And if any mistake is made in the 3D model, I can avoid making errors later during surgeries. Surgery indeed has become super advanced. During surgery, I can even check CT scan images in real-time, which helps me do better. All the technology we have is meant to make surgeries better and easier for patients. 

What’s more amazing is that AI technology stores all the surgical data, including the 5000 surgeries I’ve personally done. Surgeons worldwide can access a huge database of 5,000,000 surgeries. So, when a beginner is performing surgery, the computer can provide real time guidance based on its past knowledge. For example, if you’re making a doubtful incision, the computer might say, “From what I know about 1,000,000 surgeries, it’s better to cut 5mm away from there to prevent bleeding.” With AI, we can view scans, pictures and get advice on everything. If I need advice from experienced surgeons, I can connect with them virtually during the process. It’s like having a smart assistant throughout.

What advantages have you seen with robotic surgery’s instrument over traditional methods in your practice?

With robotic surgery, the instruments can move in all directions, even 360 degrees. There are special tools called ‘Staplers’ that are used to join intestines and with the help of AI, these staplers can accurately seal tissues, reducing the risk of bleeding. Unlike before, stitching is now very precise. This means even surgeons who weren’t doing complicated surgeries before can now perform them with the help of robotic guidance.

In what surgical areas do you find robotic techniques especially helpful?

Well, from the top to bottom, there’s surgery for the food pipe, heart, lungs, weight loss, stomach, intestine cancer, liver, kidney and gynecological cancer. It’s got a wide range of uses, especially in complicated surgeries that take more than three hours, which many doctors might be hesitant to do. With robotics, even those surgeries become doable. It’s not just about complexity; it also speeds up the process. 

For instance, weight loss surgery that used to take two hours by laparoscopy now takes less than 1 hour with robotics and it’s safer. Also, surgeons usually get more cautious when it comes to chest surgeries because of important blood vessels, heart and lungs. But with robots, procedures have gotten a lot easier because everything is super precise and clear with high-definition 3D vision. It’s like doing surgery without causing harm to the patient.

How has your experience been transitioning into robotic surgery?

Well, with laparoscopy, we used to make a small hole in the belly and use straight instruments that we controlled with our hands. They didn’t have much flexibility. It was just a straight movement. Now, with robotic surgery, the instruments can move 360 degrees. Besides, I’m already used to working on a screen and my previous experience with laparoscopy has definitely helped me transition smoothly into using the more advanced robotic instruments.

Where do you see robotic surgery heading in the future?

Robotic surgery won’t replace regular surgery but will be an extra tool, especially for complicated surgeries, making them extra safer. The priorities of countries will not change in terms of vaccination, safe drinking water and avoiding infection. However, what I am saying is few centers should have rational and effective utilization of robotic technology for the well being of the population.