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Shambhu Tamang, a noted mountaineer who held the record of the world’s youngest Everest climber for 28 years, died on July 7 after a long battle with cancer. He was 69.

Born in Sindhupalchowk district, Tamang developed a fascination for climbing mountains as a young boy. He used to see Sherpas pass through his village on climbing expeditions and wonder what it would be like to be on top of a mountain summit. This fascination became a passion when Tamang visited Italy to learn Italian at the age of 14.

“Mountains never left him even in Italy. There, too, he got to see mountains as well as mountain conservation works, which fuelled his dream of becoming a professional climber. He learned to climb while in Italy,” says Tamang’s wife Karuna Lama.

On 5 May 1973, Tamang summited Everest to become the youngest person—at 17 years, six months and 15 days—to set foot on the world’s highest peak. The Guinness World Records duly recognized his feat, which remained unbroken for 28 years until Temba Tsheri Sherpa, another Nepali climber, made a successful ascent of Everest at the age of 16 in 2001.   

Lama says her husband did not set out to climb Everest with the intention of making a record.

“He was simply pursuing his passion. He had the courage and the will to turn his passion into reality,” she says.

Tamang’s love for mountaineering and mountains only grew after the Everest expedition. He was aware of the problems faced by Nepali mountaineers and Sherpas and wanted to help them.

“He wanted to impart better training skills on mountaineers and carry out mountain preservation works in Nepal,” says Nima Nuru Sherpa, the president of Nepal Mountaineering Association. Tamang was one of the founding members of the association and its lifelong advisor.

Besides his contribution to promoting mountaineering and supporting mountaineers in Nepal, Tamang was also generous in other areas of life. He was a helpful and humble person by nature, says his wife Lama. “He always put others first, a quality that was admired by his friends and family alike,” she adds.

Tamang had for long been suffering from cancer and his condition had been steadily deteriorating. He passed away while undergoing treatment at the Nepal Cancer Hospital and Research Center in Harisiddhi, Lalitpur. Tamang is survived by his wife, a son, and a daughter.

Ask an average Nepali about the country’s main energy source and chances are they will instinctively answer “hydroelectricity”. But the truth is—despite its immense hydropower potential—Nepal’s primary source of energy is biomass like firewood and agricultural by-products. 

According to the Center for Energy Studies, Pulchowk Engineering Campus, Nepal meets 67 percent of its energy needs from biomass. Electricity—a large share of which comes from hydropower—only contributes five percent. 

Still, hydropower is seen as Nepal’s most reliable energy source. The country currently generates 2,200MW of it in the rainy season. In theory, it can produce 50,000 MW electricity by harnessing its water resources. Preparations are currently afoot to ramp up Nepal’s hydropower generating capacity to 10,000 MW over the next decade. 

In this context, this is perhaps the right time for a SWOT analysis of hydroelectricity in Nepal. 

Strengths 

When talking about strengths of hydroelectricity, it is vital to look at the advantages it brings at the grassroots level. Most of Nepal’s hydropower plants are based in rural areas, where these projects have brought road access, a precursor to any development. 

Shailesh Mishra, chief executive officer of Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN), says hydroelectricity projects can spur overall development of rural Nepal.    

“With road access brought by hydropower projects, many children in rural Nepal won’t have to walk for hours or use unsafe ropeways and bridges to go to  school. It will also improve people’s access to health facilities, transport service, and trade,” he says.  “Hydropower projects are essential to meeting Nepal’s energy needs in a sustainable manner, as well as for the country’s overall development.”  

Sushil Pokharel, managing director at Hydro Village Pvt Ltd, adds that developing more hydroelectric projects will also contribute to curbing brain drain by creating jobs inside the country.  

In June 2022, a total of 34,807 people left the country to work abroad, according to the Department of Foreign Employment. 

“More and  more Nepalis will fly out when there are no job opportunities here,” says Pokharel. 

He suggests establishing new hydropower plants and proper use of the existing ones to provide more jobs to Nepali youths.

Weaknesses 

Nepal’s difficult topography is one of the major obstacles that has set Nepal behind in hydroelectricity, says Mukesh Kafle, a former CEO of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). 

As the country is dotted with hills and mountains, most hydropower projects are run-of-the-river (ROR). Kafle says energy output fluctuates in ROR plants with a change in season. 

“Our electricity production of 2,200 MW drops by nearly a third during the dry season,” adds Kafle. Nepal has been importing electricity (around 800 MW) from India to tide over its dry-season demand. 

Apart from the country’s tricky geography, unstable politics is also a challenge in hydropower-development. 

Mishra, of IPPAN, says hydroelectricity development requires huge investment, which the government alone cannot muster. 

Pokharel, of Hydro Village Pvt. Ltd., adds that potential investors are unwilling to provide funds given Nepal’s unstable political climate. “Governments keep changing and so do policies. This discourages potential investors,” he says.  

Besides generating more hydroelectricity, he adds, Nepal also needs to build robust infrastructure by factoring in the growing number of consumers.   

“Our transformers won’t be able to handle the load if we do not urgently upgrade and add to our electricity infrastructure,” says Pokharel.

Opportunities 

Energy experts say there are plenty of opportunities that Nepal can create with a good plan of action and a sound policy.  

“Nepal has abundant water resources to generate hydroelectricity. This in itself is a major opportunity,” says Kafle, the former CEO of the electricity authority. 

The country already produces surplus energy during monsoon season, giving it the option of exporting the excess. Bangladesh’s Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources has proposed importing surplus electricity from Nepal, and vice-versa, during the lull season.

“The proposal for power trade between Nepal and Bangladesh is a good opportunity,” says Kafle.

Besides that, Mishra says inter-country energy trading can also be a robust diplomatic tool to buttress bilateral ties. 

Pokharel echoes Kafle: “Exporting surplus energy will definitely help Nepal’s economy. Having an income source through this trade would give the country economic security.”

Mishra adds that the geological feature of Nepal itself is also an opportunity if properly utilized. “To produce electricity, we need a sloppy terrain, with water flowing from a certain height,” he says. “In this case, Nepal is naturally gifted.” 

If pursued wisely, there is no reason the goal of sufficiency in electricity and export of excess cannot be realized. 

Possibilities will surely widen if Nepal took the right approach to exploiting and managing its hydropower potential, says energy experts. 

The Paris Agreement, UN’s legally binding international treaty on climate change, might play a major role in turning this potential into reality. 

As India has committed to stopping carbon emissions by 2070, it will be more and more dependent on hydroelectricity to make up for the shortfall. 

“Our surplus energy could be one of their electricity sources,” says Mishra. 

Mishra says specific hydro plants can be built for monsoon-time production, with the sole intent of exporting power to Indian markets. 

Kafle, meanwhile, adds that Nepal’s energy market could expand beyond India to other South Asian countries. “All we need is the right approach,” he says.

Threats 

As Nepal aims to become a hydroelectricity-rich country, there are also threats.  One of the biggest, say Kafle and Mishra, is the monopoly of the NEA. 

As there is no alternative body to monitor and regulate electricity consumption and distribution, Nepal will always have a monopolistic electricity market. 

“A monopolistic market is always a threat,” Mishra says. “This threat will remain until hydroelectricity generation, transmission, and distribution are delegated to separate agencies.” 

So there is a need for a clear policy, regulation and devolution of power in Nepal’s hydroelectricity sector. 

But just being invested in making a clear policy is not enough. Mishra says timing is as important. “What good are policies if we are unable to use them when we need them the most?” he asks. 

There is also a geopolitical hurdle to realizing Nepal’s hydroelectric dreams. 

A new Indian government policy bars the trade of electricity produced by Nepali power projects with Chinese investments. 

“This is definitely a threat for our economy as the majority of our power plants have Chinese investment,” says Kafle. 

This in turn has added to the uncertainty over projects like the China-funded 445-MW Upper Tamakoshi that recently came into operation.  

Our worldviews are largely shaped by the media we consume in our formative years—movies, TV series, glossy glam magazines, and what have you.    

For the girls of my generation, Disney classics like ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ made us long for our own ‘prince charming’, our own ‘happily ever after’ in real life. When I think of it today, those animated features taught us young girls to be subservient. 

Take Prince Phillip (Sleeping Beauty) kissing an unconscious Princess Aurora while completely ignoring the concept of consent. Or Belle (Beauty and the Beast) being held captive against her will by the grotesque Beast, with whom she eventually falls for in a twisted Stockholm syndrome of a story. 

As young girls, we romanticized and idolized these characters. They taught us that women are vulnerable, always the damsels in distress. They also reminded us that a man’s actions—if he is the hero of the story—are always valid, no matter how condescending and sexist they were. 

While Disney has made some amends—with movies like ‘Brave’ (in which Merida, a lead, is a warrior) and ‘Moana’ (the eponymous hero who saves her village from destruction)—where women are shown as capable in their own rights, most Nepali and Indian films and soaps continue to peddle some extremely troubling old tropes.

Most mainstream Nepali movies still portray women in supporting roles. ‘Women lead’, they call the main actress, but in most cases, she is leading nothing. “So far as Nepali women’s portrayal on the big screen is concerned, not much has changed in the past two decades,” says Dipendra Lama, a film director who has also been critiquing Nepali movies for 22 years. 

Catcalling and harassing are our hero’s way of winning the girl’s heart—which he always does. For instance, in ‘Jerryy’, a 2014 smash hit, female characters are called ‘maal’. The literal translation of the word is a possession or an object. The word in the movie refers to a ‘loose woman’, or to put it more bluntly, a slut. In the film, Anmol KC, our hero, has the penchant for calling women his ‘maal’. This is done to show that KC is a ladies’ magnet, a bona fide playboy. 

In KC’s other hit ‘Dreams’, he rescues the character played by Sandhya KC from a bunch of thugs just five minutes into the film. The only purpose the scene serves is to show that a woman requires a man to be safe or saved from other men, and that our hero can single-handedly rough up six or seven villains. In the same movie, not long after this scene, we see KC threatening the character played by Samragyee RL Shah just because his ego was bruised when the latter refused his advances.  

Women are thus objectified, abused and catcalled, and apparently these things are normal. 

Movies and shows like these twist the perception of boys and young men, especially when it comes to women. “As artists, we should have been more progressive with our filmmaking,” says Lama. “But most filmmakers are only concerned with what the audiences want, not what they need to see.” 

This normalization of patriarchal roles in the entertainment industry is nowhere more blatant than in the Nepali reality show, Blind Date, where the male participants are often brazenly lewd and inappropriate with the female contestants. The show creators do not seem to care that they are giving out a wrong message. 

The same goes for the 2019 Bollywood hit ‘Kabir Singh’ in which the main character played by Shahid Kapoor uses controlling behavior and violence towards his romantic interest, a role portrayed by Kiara Advani. The movie is toxic masculinity at its worst and it was a box office hit. 

In Lama’s view, it is no surprise that Nepali movies, many of which are adapted from Indian cinemas, continue to be so bad. 

Such movies and shows “reflect the reality of our male-dominated society,” in the words of actor Richa Sharma. 

They amplify male dominance in the name of entertainment and in doing so contribute to the vicious circle of patriarchy. 

“The sad reality of Nepal is that movies with such storylines gain more viewers. It doesn’t matter how good the actors are or how good the story is,” says Sharma. 

Even in the case of smash-hit movies like ‘Loot’, its initial hype was largely based on its sultry and highly suggestive dance number ‘Udhreko Choli’ (‘torn blouse’). 

Sex sells in the entertainment industry and mainstream filmmakers and show producers are apparently going a step further by hyper-sexualizing and hyper-objectifying female characters. The audience, meanwhile, is lapping it up. 

“To change this pattern of filmmaking, we need newcomers who are more open-minded and attuned to the changing tastes and sensibilities,” says actor Surakshya Panta. 

She adds that although progressive movies and series are being made, they get drowned by the sheer number of films and shows that objectify women. 

Patriarchy and normalization of sexual abuse and violence on women run deep in the entertainment industry. “Actress and models facing unwarranted sexual advances, abuses and harassment is nothing new in Nepal,” says Sharma. “But only a few cases come out.” 

In 2020, actor Samragyee RL Shah shared via her Instagram posts about the harassment she faced in the film industry. More recently, former child actor and model Sushmita Regmi shared her harrowing story on how she was raped multiple times by a beauty pageant organizer, who is currently in police custody. 

All of these incidents show how unsafe the entertainment industry is for women. 

Panta adds that many female actors who have been abused or harassed cannot expose their abusers because there isn’t a proper support system. “The industry would be safer for women if there was an authority to do background checks, or to simply control who comes into this industry,” she says. 

Actor Sharma says incidents of abuse and violence are not limited to the entertainment industry. Women and girls are facing abuse and other heinous acts even in their own homes, she says. 

“How do we expect these cases to come out when women cannot share their sufferings with their own family?” she asks.

Splitsvilla, a popular Indian reality show, is being adapted in Nepal by AP1 Television. The original show, MTV Splitsvilla, has held millions of Indian youths agog for the last 13 seasons, and now its Nepali franchise is expected to do the same. The program will be shot in Chitwan and it is set to be aired sometime between August and September, with Nikita Chandak and Shrijal Rupakehti as their

For those who do not know, Splitsvilla is a dating reality series where contestants must avoid elimination from the villa by competing in various tasks as pairs and try to find love in the process.

The show will be unscripted to ensure spontaneity, but will follow the guidelines set by the franchise company.

“It will be nothing like Nepali TV audiences have seen before,” says Mohit Basnet, head of business at AP1 TV.  “The show’s contestants come from varied backgrounds from the up and coming social media influencers to your girls and boys next door.”

The contestants were selected following a rigorous process not just in order to ensure diversity but also to make the show entertaining.

Utsab Regmi, the show’s director, says this show is not about finding dancing or singing talents unlike most other Nepali reality TV. “Splitsvilla will have an admixture of people from doctors to fitness instructors to former reality TV contestants,” he adds. “Apart from the winning couple, we also hope to find many new, interesting characters through this show.”

The identities of Splitsvilla residents remain a fiercely guarded secret until now. Though some TikTok users have declared that they will be in the show, Regmi dismissed their claims. “The series participants sign non-disclosure agreements,” he says “The show itself will reveal the contestants.”

The only information Regmi and Basnet are willing to divulge is that there will be plenty of romance, heartache, betrayal and intrigue inside Splitsvilla.

Since we are talking about reality dating shows, there is another niggling curiosity: is it going to be like Blind Date?  The answer is a resounding “no” from both Regmi and Basnet.

“The two shows are completely different. One crucial difference is that Splitsvilla focuses on tasks performed by contestants, not the actual dates between a boy and a girl,” explains Regmi.

Blind Date has made its name for being divisive in nature—a cringefest for some and a guilty pleasure for others.

Splitsvilla, Regmi says, is a well-established popular reality TV franchise, the one that has made its reputation without relying on shock value and scandal.

“This show will not be in any way misogynistic, inappropriate or cheap to off-put the viewers,” he says. “There are terms and conditions that contestants must follow. Inappropriate remarks and behaviors will not be tolerated. Such acts will result in immediate disqualification.”

Besides, Regmi adds, there will be constant presence of professional production crew in the villa.

Indeed, the show producers seem to have gone an extra mile to prevent untoward events by separating male and female residents and mobilizing security guards in and around the villa.

“We have strict guidelines for the contestants as well as the crew members that are to be followed to the letter,” Regmi says.

Rita Pandey has been selling panipuri in Patan for the past three years. The recent ban on streetfood sale in response to the cholera outbreak has put her in a fix.  

She has no business right now and she doesn’t know how long the ban will stay. 

When I met her on a recent afternoon, she was sitting on a pavement talking to a group of people. Her cart was nowhere to be seen. Pandey is 24 but she looks old for her age, deep frown lines run across her head and just looking at her face, one can say she worries a lot. 

She has been living alone with her daughter after her husband left   to work in Kuwait in 2019. Pandey started selling panipuri two years ago in order to pay the rent and send her daughter to school.“I don’t know how long this ban will last. My livelihood depended on selling panipuri. Without business, it is getting difficult to survive,” she says.

Although her husband sends money, it hardly covers the cost of living in the city. Every month, Pandey pays Rs 7,000 for rent and another Rs 4,500 for her daughter’s school fees. “On good days, I make a profit of Rs 1,500 a day,” she says.Pandey was born and raised in Arghakhanchi 

district and came to Lalitpur for the first time after her marriage in 2017. She was just 19 at the time and didn’t know anything about city life, how unforgiving it could be if you have no source of income.

Panday’s husband was planning to go abroad at the time. While he frequented one manpower agency after another, she stayed at home. “My husband got a job in Kuwait and left in 2019. Our daughter hadn’t been born yet; I didn’t even know I was pregnant at the time,” Pandey says.

She got through the pregnancy alone and gave birth to a baby girl. This was during the initial days of Covid-19 pandemic. Life was getting increasingly hard for Pandey, a new mother. That was when she decided to start a panipuri business. 

“My daughter was just seven-month old when I started this business, but soon Covid-19 hit Nepal and I couldn’t put up my stall for several months,” she says. When the country went under a lockdown, Pandey didn’t know what to do. She had already made the investment and backing down was not an option. 

Once the lockdown was lifted, she set up her business on the roadside of Patan. In the initial days, Pandey says she didn’t earn much. “I spend around Rs 2,000 daily and some days I couldn’t even break even, but I pressed on,” she says.

Her business really took off last summer. More people started visiting her cart and she has made many regular customers. “I was making good progress until Lalitpur Metropolitan City imposed this ban,” Pandey says. “I didn’t even know about the ban until a random person told me about it.”

Asked if she has thought of an alternative should this ban were to last for months, she says selling panipuri is all she knows and is good at.  “I am comfortable doing this business. I don’t know if I’ll be able to shift to something else,” adds. If the ban is not lifted or continues for a long time, Pandey says she will have to think about getting a proper shop space. “I don’t even know how much that is going to cost me. But mostly, I’m worried about losing my customers.”

Kajalkali, a safari elephant who gave fun memories to many visitors who came to holiday in Sauraha, Chitwan, succumbed to old age-related maladies on June 26. She was around 60.

Kajalkali was a reason for joy for many people whom she carried on her back and took on safari of Chitwan National Park, but her own life was not a happy one. She was after all a captive elephant, without a herd or even a natural habitat. She led a domesticated life among humans, who dictated what she did and where she went.

Not much is known about Kajalkali’s early life other than that she was born in India and brought to Sauraha in 2017. For an Asian elephant, she was already in her twilight years when she was put to work as a safari elephant.

“Despite her old age and poor health, she was used for jungle safari for three and a half years,” says Babu Ram Lamichhane, senior conservation officer at the National Trust of Nature Conservation (NTNC). 

Although Kajalkali was privately owned, the trust monitored her health and well-being. Kajalkali’s previous owner had last year abandoned her when she started showing signs of illness. He had sold her to an Indian buyer even though the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as well as the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1973, bans elephant trade. 

Kajalkali never made it to India. Authorities intercepted the truck that was transporting her to the south and she was returned to Sauraha.

Shri Lal Pariyar, a hotel owner in Sauraha, took Kajalkali in, as her previous owner wanted nothing to do with her. She was given shelter and fed by the hotel, while the NTNC looked after her medical needs. 

“Two caregivers were attending to Kajalkali as she had gotten too feeble,” says Lamichhane.

Kajalkali was showing many signs of aging. For instance, she had lost several teeth, which made it difficult for her to chew. 

Elephants can lose and regrow their teeth six times at most. After that, they do not grow back, which was the case for Kajalkali, says Lamichhane. “She wasn't eating properly and became emaciated, which resulted in a severe digestive issue," he adds.

Kajalkali was getting weaker by the day and there came a point where she couldn’t even bear her own weight. She collapsed on May 23 and had to be lifted with an excavator.

“Veterinarians administered her with saline drips to nurse her back to health,” says Lamichhane. 

Kajalkali recovered but not fully. She collapsed for the second time on May 31 and then again a few days later, and this time never to get up on her feet. 

Kajalkali stopped eating entirely; she couldn’t even drink water. People who witnessed her in her last days reported seeing her drawing water with her trunk and putting it in her mouth, but she was unable to swallow. Every now and then, she would move her feet and trunk but other than that there was barely a movement.

Kajalkali died on the afternoon of June 26 and she was buried on the spot where she took her last breath.  

High inflation has squeezed the budgets of Nepali households. The year-on-year consumer price inflation was 7.87 percent in the 10th month of the fiscal year 2021/22 compared to 3.65 percent the same month a year ago, Nepal Rastra Bank data show. Prices of ghee and oil; fruits; milk products and eggs; and pulses and legumes rose by 24.86 percent, 12.61 percent, 11.30 percent, and 10.53 percent, respectively.

While the grocery list for each household varies, ApEx here considers 10 essential daily items in order to compare their prices in Kathmandu and New Delhi.  Of these items, only two—basmati long grain rice and ghee—are cheaper in Nepal than in India. 

Per kilo potato and wheat flour price, for instance, are Rs 12 dearer in Nepal than in India. The biggest price difference is on peas, at a staggering Rs 127. Prices of sugar, pulses, tomatoes and sunflower oil are also higher in Nepal.   

Nepal’s low agricultural production means most of these grocery items have to be imported from India, driving up their prices. The consumer price inflation in an import-reliant country like Nepal is also heavily influenced by transport cost, which in turn is determined by fuel prices. With oil prices skyrocketing due to the Russia-Ukraine war, imported goods have become costlier than ever. 

Rising trade deficit and import bills are not good for Nepal—and certainly not for its people who earn in a currency that is also fast depreciating against the dollar, the international benchmark. 

We should brace ourselves for long-haul inflation 

Bishal Chalise, economist 

As we import most of our food items from India, higher prices are to be expected here. But there are other reasons for high inflation as well, like the Russia-Ukraine war and our low production and productivity. 

Because of the war, the price of petroleum products has gone up globally, which contributes to price inflation of goods. There is a fear of a possible food crisis, and countries with high agricultural production have started stocking up on food as a backup plan. 

The likes of India, Vietnam and China have significantly lowered export of food items and yet their production has not fluctuated.

But the scenario is different in Nepal. Even though we produce little and are heavily import-reliant, the government has no plans on curbing soaring inflation. Our monetary and other financial policies are ad hoc. We cannot drastically increase our production  as well. This lack of effort augurs a long inflationary phase in Nepali economy. 

Further, we do not have the capacity to use only clean energy and do away with petroleum products. We need fossil fuel for mobility, to transport goods, and to sustain our economy. But a petro-dependent economy is getting increasingly difficult to sustain, what with the global oil prices soaring due to the Russia-Ukraine war. 

Amid this unstable global climate and lack of preparation on the part of our government, we should brace ourselves for long-haul inflation. 

The best way to minimize the crisis is by controlling consumption. Only necessary items should be imported, while consumption should be monitored as well to prevent the wastage of imported goods. Or else, the crisis will get much worse.

Inside the studio of Claé Creatives, one notices the minimalist interior, an open plan wood-themed workspace. The place is spacious and the furniture sparse. The word ‘elegance’ comes to mind—and elegance is what this branding agency at Kathmandu’s Naxal is all about. 

A subsidiary of the Century Group of Companies, Claé Creatives was founded by Ayushi Dugar in 2020. The studio offers software development, branding, digital marketing, and graphic design services. Their products are simple and ergonomic and without any flash and frills.

These can be seen on the brand designs of companies like Ecoponic Agri Tech of India and Pelvic PT of the US. Clae Creatives is also behind the logos of Cucu Cuddles of India, and Incré of Nigeria.

The studio has offered its services from startups to well-established businesses in Nepal and abroad.

One of the reasons Dugar started the company was to give designers a proper platform to showcase their talents. “I see many designers not being given the recognition they deserve, and this is particularly true if you happen to be a woman” she says. She wants to create a gender-balanced environment for designers, where everyone is encouraged to learn from each other.

Dugar majored in graphic designing and marketing as an undergraduate and did her postgraduate in UI (user interface)/UX (user experience) design.  She feels that the design industry in Nepal needs to grow to put out better products and services.

“There is a misconception in Nepal that designing is an easy task, but there are many aspects and processes to it,” she says. 

From coming up with logo designing to product packaging to marketing, there are many areas the studio works in. It takes a lot of research and brainstorming to create a unique brand identity.

Claé Creatives helps businesses understand how to brand themselves and shift towards digital marketing.

In terms of software development, the company creates everything from scratch. The entire software is designed around what best suits a particular company and its profile. Also accounted for are how the potential customers are going to interact with the software and how to make their experience enjoyable and engaging.

Many businesses in Nepal do not realize the importance of design and digital marketing, but this is slowly changing, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic when online stores and sales took off.

Asked if it is difficult to get clients willing to invest in branding and digital marketing, Dugar says the answer is both yes and no. While there has been an uptick in the number of companies willing to take the risk and invest in their brand designs and marketing them through digital platforms, she says “there is still a huge gap a studio like ours can fill.”   

Claé Creatives itself uses digital platforms like Instagram to inform and educate the people about digital marketing and how it works, and this approach has succeeded to some extent. It has managed to gain several domestic and foreign clients.  The studio is already planning to expand internationally, starting from India, to make their services more convenient and accessible for the clients abroad.

The overall goal of Claé creatives is to promote the designing industry of Nepal. Dugar says there are a lot of creative people in Nepal who are reluctant to join a company and put their talent to use. She envisions a comfortable and encouraging working environment for such talents, especially women, so that they will not have to give up on their passion due to lack of a better platform.

“It is much better to work in a team, since it presents more opportunities and learning experience,” she says