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Today’s Telegram is a young lifestyle brand that brings out leather and eco-friendly fabrics, among other creative products, all the while essentially being a ‘writing’ brand. It has already reached around 10,000 consumers in and outside Nepal with its 101 different product lines based on pure leather and recycled fabric products.

Arsalan Akhter, the founder of Today’s Telegram, wanted to revive the 163-year-old telegram, one of the oldest and fastest methods of communication. “I realized that what we carry in our bags—from laptops and phones to notebooks and pens—are the modern day Telegram,” he says. “That essentially became ‘Today’s Telegram’ which can never get outdated.”

Akhter’s family business, United Tannery, has been producing pure leather in Nepal for more than 40 years now, and is one of the major exporters of leather products. 

Following in his family’s footsteps, he created Today’s Telegram in 2017 to cater to the young people with an artistic bent. The company started with a dark-room photo exhibit named ‘Nepal in 60s’ to showcase their vintage designs. 

Starting with bags, jackets, and belts at first, by the end of 2018, Telegram had started manufacturing Nepal’s first pure leather bean bags.  

Arsalan Akhter, founder of Today’s Telegram

Then, they launched recycled and sustainable Nepali fabric products, making body wear using varieties of made-in-Nepal bamboo fabric, hemp fabric, and Allo fabric. They later transitioned to different styled bags, which are mostly exported. “As we know international customers are very much into it, we are intent on experimenting more on this theme,” Akhter says. 

They also brought out a collection of local craftsmanship, represented through handmade leather wallets, purses, and key pouches. One reason for Telegram’s continued growth has been their ever-adapting catalog of designs and segments. 

As manufactures, control over design and aesthetic is a huge plus for the brand. The leather by nature is artistic, Akhter says. Given that leather also gives maximum utility and functionality, they get the leverage to work more creatively on their designs. 

“Leather is one of the most premium and playful natural fabrics to craft with,” he says, adding, “No two leather skins are the same and each has natural markings and blemishes that make the designs more exclusive—giving the product a vintage identity”. 

Also read: Automate your life with Simply Automatic 

In the Nepali market, 70 percent of Telegram’s customers are reportedly repetitive or referenced. As a manufacturer, leather quality is in their hands and the price is low as they don’t have to buy leather. “If someone buys a product, s/he keeps coming back,” Akhter adds. 

Nepalis living outside the country are also attracted to these products. “Coming across Nepal-made products in a foreign land ignites a certain emotion,” says Akhter. “Nepali leather is quite famous and people tend to choose Nepali products due to their artistic and cultural value as well”. 

Today’s Telegram have already exhibited and sold products in their first international stall at the Spring Fair in Birmingham, UK in February 2020, and are currently preparing for an International fair in the US. Moreover, they supply bulk orders to the UK, New Zealand, and Australia.

The company is also preparing for a release of their writing products through a pocketbook in the flash fiction genre. With an in-person shop at Pulchowk, Lalitpur, they have recently launched an e-commerce website too. 

Police have arrested Navin Subedi, Chief Executive Officer of Saptakoshi Development Bank, for his alleged involvement in misappropriation of bank money. Along with Subedi, Devi Prasad Bhandari, the bank’s finance chief, and Amit Thapa Magar, its operations chief, have also been detained.

Police investigation has revealed that a huge sum of bank money was transferred to the private account of Babita Subedi, sister of CEO Subedi. A total of NRs 157 million was transferred from the bank’s remittance branch in the past six years, says a police officer involved in the investigation.

“Of the total embezzled money, Rs 140 million was sent to Babita’s account at Prime Bank from between 2016 and August 2021,” says the police officer. The amount has already been withdrawn from the account. Family sources, however, claim that Babita did not even know she had an account at Prime Bank.

Earlier, police had arrested Himal Bhattarai, cousin of CEO Subedi, on the charge of his involvement in the scam. Bhattarai is head of the bank’s General Service Department (GSD) at its corporate office in Biratnagar. 

According to the bank, the remaining Rs 17 million was sent to the accounts of Bhagwati Subedi, Sajan Pokharel, and Bani Pokharel, among other relatives of CEO Subedi.

According to Morang Police SP Janardan GC, five other employees of the bank are under suspicion, as they reckon it wouldn't have been possible for one person to embezzle so much money.

After two decades, say some estimates, we may need automation as much as we need our phones now. Automation can do anything it is designed for.

Simply Automatic, a new automation brand, offers smart products and solutions for everyday-tasks in homes, enterprises as well as industries. “We want more people from our country to access and afford smart products for their homes,” says Prajwal Neupane, CEO of Simply Automatic.

With an objective of introducing Artificial Intelligence in Nepal, Simply Automatic has brought an AI-generated home automation system.

Artificial Intelligence has over the years evolved to make our lives more convenient because “there are limits to things we humans can do,” says Neupane. “We invariably reach a point where we get tired and our productivity declines.” 

“Doing daily chores using artificial intelligence is a revolution in itself,” he adds, acknowledging limits to our efficiency, effort, time, energy and intelligence.

AI solutions are limitless and outcomes are often 10 times better than what humans can achieve. With home automation, daily lives can become more convenient and house owners can be safer.

Simply Automatic was brought under the franchise of Life Smart, a global brand providing smart home products and solutions that offers a diverse range of smart devices. All of these operate under advanced IoT technologies and cloud services to create a base for smart home systems. Serving more than two million users in over 80 countries, it is a CA-certified brand in the UK and CE-certified brand in the US. 

Also read: Business | A relaxing weekend getaway at Meraki 

Simply Automatic works to bring those smart services to Nepal. Their new product is ‘Home Automation’, a simple automatic starter set that can do a list of household work through AI. From simple tasks like turning the lights on or locking doors, to making the more complex ones easier, this system is designed to make every-day work a luxury.

All you need is a master setup directly connected to the internet, which in turn takes the user’s command to run tasks entered from a home automation mirror. Everyday tasks thus become more convenient and productive. The easy accessibility and convenience also contribute to energy-conservation.

“There are times when we unknowingly end up leaving appliances like air conditioning and light bulbs on. Besides keeping them on unnecessarily and wasting energy, we leave behind a huge carbon footprint. If we can save that, little by little, we can eventually contribute a lot to a healthy environment,” says Neupane. The system can turn off lights when you aren’t using them on its own and lower the total utility budget by 10 to 25 percent. 

Home Automation comes with a ‘simply automatic starter set’, ‘homekit’ and is compatible with other smart home devices. Along with making repetitive tasks more convenient, it also ensures safety and provides inexpensive home security services. It is affordable too. It maintains cyber security by using minimal data to function.

“Home automation is just the start to a future full of possibilities,” Neupane says. “And we plan on taking our services to different parts of Nepal.”

The Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) has raided the offices of Samanantar Nirman Sewa Pvt Ltd for alleged corruption in Kathmandu Metropolitan City’s Teku building construction project, and tax evasion.

The move follows complaints filed by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), a constitutional body mandated to investigate corruption. 

On December 17, the DRI team confiscated all the documents related to the contract from its office located at Old Baneshwor.

Samanantar, a construction company, has been building government infrastructure for a long time. The company has been accused of getting large governmental contracts through its political nexus, particularly during the tenure of the erstwhile PM Oli. 

Also read: Dubious dealings at Sindhu Bikash Bank  

Currently, the company has almost Rs 13 billion worth of contracts related to government-owned buildings, including one worth Rs 5.87 billion for a new Supreme Court building.

Further, it has contracts from Nepal Police Club, Nepal Oil Corporation, Bhaktapur District Court, provincial ministries’ offices and quarters, Department of Roads, Nepal Rastra Bank, Metropolitan Police Office, and Office of Attorney General.

Besides the buildings, it also builds roads throughout the country. The recently built International Conference Center at Godawari was also the work of Samanantar. The center’s roofs had started leaking even before its inauguration. 

Company Chairman Achyut Kharel, however, has denied the charges. “We have VAT bills for each transaction. There was no need to confiscate our documents,” says Kharel.