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Dashain is here and there’s a festive feel in the air. But people ApEx spoke to confessed that it’s not the same anymore. We asked three people how things have changed and what they miss the most and here’s what they had to say. 

Shristika Prajapati, 19

Dashain has always been my favorite festival and getting to spend time with my family is the best part. I miss my brother as he is abroad and he won’t be coming home. I believe Dashain isn’t what it used to be several years ago. It’s changed and people have tweaked the rituals to fit their schedules. I miss the traditional feel of the festival. Many people don’t go to temples and conduct elaborate pujas anymore. Rather, it’s become an excuse to party and have fun without partaking in rituals that actually matter. 

Kusum Rimal, 57

I’m a religious person who enjoys performing puja and spending time with my family. During Dashain, I miss my family even more. My daughters live away from home and they won’t be able to come back and join in on the festivities. Dashain has lost its charm because it’s not about being with your family and friends anymore. Many youngsters these days don’t know why we celebrate Dashain. The older generation must ensure we pass on our traditions and stories so that they aren’t lost over time. 

Bhim Bahadur Tamang, 79

Dashain isn’t about pujas and rituals as it once used to be. It’s more about food and parties and meeting relatives. I guess that is okay too. But I wish we gave more importance to traditions and didn’t let them fade away. I fear that in the future, people won’t even go to put tika and take blessings from their relatives as they will be too preoccupied with their lives. Since most families are scattered around the world, the tradition is already on the decline.

Dashain is synonymous with food, lots and lots of food. Everywhere you go, you are offered tasty delicacies that you might not be able to say no to. It’s not unusual for most of us to gain weight during festival time, followed by an urgent need to go on a strict diet when the festivities are over. But do we really need to put ourselves through the ordeal yet again? Isn’t there anything we can do to ensure we don’t let ourselves go overboard and eat mindfully during Dashain this year? Don’t fret. We bring to you some simple ways you can be kinder to yourself and your gut this festive season.

Drink water

It’s important to stay hydrated, especially during festival times when everywhere you go, you will be offered juices, sodas, teas, etc. It’s a good idea to drink a few glasses of water as soon as you wake up and carry a bottle around with you. This way you will not be tempted to reach for sugary drinks when you get thirsty. If plain water is too boring, add some lemon or cucumber slices and make your own infused water. A dash of rock salt with some lemon squeezed in will also lend a nice flavor to plain water. 

Set a daily quota

Don’t go around eating everything you are offered everywhere you go. Set a daily limit for sweets, meat, and other Dashain treats. For instance, tell yourself that you only get to have one laddu or peda each day, then choose when you want to have that, and say no to them after you have had your daily dose. This is also a great way to exercise some discipline and make sure you don’t end up gorging on unhealthy things. But you also won’t have to completely deprive yourself during a time when everyone around you seems to be eating to their heart’s content. 

Have a light meal before you go

One of the biggest mistakes we make during festival time is starving ourselves and then stuffing ourselves when we get to the party or get-together venue. This way we often end up overeating or munching on random snacks to fill us up. Consider having a light meal before you head out. It could be some fruits and yogurt, or eggs on toast—just something that won’t make you extremely hungry and thus less likely to serve yourself huge portions when it’s finally time for lunch or dinner. 

Don’t skip exercise

As we rush from chore to chore and house to house, our daily routines and rituals go for a toss. We end up compromising on our wellness routines like meditation and exercise to be able to squeeze in all the obligations that the festival demands from us. However, it’s best not to skip your regular ritual as these instill a sense of discipline in your days. You are more likely to be mindful of what you eat when you are exercising and taking care of yourself. 

Generative AI (Gen AI) is a form of artificial intelligence that has the capability to create different kinds of content, such as text, images, audio, and synthetic data based on the data they have been trained on. Chat GPT, Google Bard, Perplexity AI, Jasper AI, Copy. AI, Midjourney, Copilot and Firefly are a few examples of Gen AI. Gen AI relies on machine learning, and the tools associated with it are trained on vast amounts of data, frequently encompassing billions of pages of text or images. Depending on the methodology employed by the AI tool developer, the training datasets may include freely accessible and unencumbered information (pure data), protected materials (such as copyrighted works), or a combination of both. Gen AI is in a vast growing Phase across all over the world. In the vast growing phase current legal mechanisms are unable to regulate the content generated by Gen AI. 

Legal issues

Gen AI has raises many legal challenges and issues some of them are as follows:

First legal issue is that Gen AI creates its contents, writing and its information from various resources available on the internet but it does not provide appropriate citation, source or authority that breaks many laws related to copyright, IP, etc.

Second legal issue is about copyright. Section 3(2) of The Copyright Act, 2059 (2002) states that “any translation, arrangement, sequential arrangement of work or collection of works presented as original from viewpoint of presentation, collection or expression, data or database readable with or without support of machine, any proverb, folktale, folk song falling under folk expression or any other derivative works based on folk expression shall be protected as original work, without prejudice to the copyright of the original work.” Section 2(b) of the same act mentions that ‘Author’ means a person who creates a work and section (h) defines that ‘Copyright owner’ means the author of a work in cases where the economic right of that work is vested in that author, a person or organization in cases where the economic right of the work is primarily vested in the person or organization other than the author, and a person or organization, in cases where the economic right of the work is transferred to that person or organization. So, what about the work, authorship and copyright ownership of Gen AI. Gen AI is pushing copyright into a state of crisis. Last year, over a dozen copyright lawsuits related to AI were filed in the United States, significantly increasing compared to the total number of filings from 2020 to 2022.

Third legal issue is about The Patent, Design and Trade Mark. We have no clear laws whether new content generated by AI tools such as patent, design or trademark works, can be protected by IP rights, and if so, who owns those rights. Section 3(1) of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act, 2022 (1965) states that “A person desirous of obtaining right over any patent shall register such patent in his/her name under this Act.” Further, section 6 (1) (b) of the same act mentioned that in the circumstance where the applicant him/herself is not the inventor of the patent sought to be so registered nor has acquired rights over it from the original inventor such patent cannot be registered. Gen AI has no personality. So, how should it be regulated?  These are not generated or created by the human mind. 

Fourth legal issue is about expertise and professionalism. In many issues such as medical counseling, legal counseling and other work there needs expertise and professionals for these works but in the case of AI it is very difficult to establish professionalism and expertise. How can current legal mechanisms address these? 

Fifth legal issue is about the privacy and confidentiality of a person. In context of Nepal Article 28 of Constitution of Nepal provides Right to privacy, Individual Privacy Act 2018, National Criminal codes 2074, Act Relating to Children, 2075 and other prevailing laws regulates the data protection about individual privacy. These are applicable to persons What about the breach of these rights and laws by Gen AI as It has remarkable power and capacity of reading data from millions of websites including confidential websites also.  One of the remarkable examples can be the case of Brian Hood, A mayor in Australia’s Victoria state where Chat GPT has made false claims that he had served time in prison for bribery. The Mayor had warned to file a lawsuit against Chat GPT.  

Sixth legal issues is about ethics of AI As one of the ‘AI Ethics Survey in Nepal’ conducted by Shreyasha Paudel and Aatiz Ghimire it has found some gaps in AI ethics understanding “As pointed out by most of our respondents across all three surveys, there is a lack of national policy and guideline related to Artificial Intelligence in Nepal. Existing laws are very limited in addressing many ethical problems that may arise from the rapidly growing AI industry.” 

Seventh legal issue is about Autonomous AI. It is an advanced form of AI .AI in this category can “proactively and autonomously evaluate options—making decisions or challenging the status quo.” when it comes to autonomous AI “the decision rights are with the machine.” In present time one of the notable examples of autonomous AI can be the advent of the fully autonomous vehicle, driverless taxi in San Francisco whose emergence may become reality in Nepal also after some time. Nepal must be ready for regulating such types of vehicles through proper legal mechanisms.  

Other uses of autonomous AI can be found in the corporate management context, there are already several specific autonomous AI applications in use. They perform tasks such as autonomous robotic trading of securities and handling of loan applications. The use of such systems is not yet widespread but is, according to an Accenture study on the promise of artificial intelligence, “increasingly becoming commonplace.” Nepali lawmakers must be also aware about these issues Nepal is not far from suffering from these issues.  

Conclusion 

Only human beings are social actors but machines and technologies are not the social actors. Gen AI is one of the very complex and intelligent technologies that is about to play the role of social actors.  So it must be treated differently from other technologies. It is necessary to regulate Gen AI by making specific laws as in the present context of globalization and advancement of race in technology no state can be away from Gen AI. 

The cooperative fraud allegations against Rabi Lamichhane have shaken the Rastriya Swatantra Party’s image. While some might still believe in him, others, especially those affected by the fraud, seem to have lost trust. The real question now is whether the party can recover its lost reputation, or if the scandal will leave lasting damage. Aaradhana Shrestha from ApEx asked three people how they think the recent allegations of cooperative embezzlement against Rabi Lamichhane will impact the Rastriya Swatantra Party, especially since it has positioned itself as a party of integrity and change? Do they believe this controversy will affect how people see the party and its leadership, or will supporters continue to trust them?

Dibya Dahal, 22

The recent allegations of embezzlement against Rabi Lamichhane could pose a significant challenge to both his leadership and the reputation of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). As a party that has positioned itself as a beacon of integrity and reform, any accusations of financial misconduct could damage the trust it has cultivated, especially among younger voters drawn to Lamichhane’s anti-establishment stance. The key issue is whether the public will view these allegations as a personal failing of Lamichhane or as indicative of broader problems within the party.

The controversy tests the party’s ability to uphold its core values in practice. Lamichhane’s popularity has been built on a persona of transparency and fighting corruption, so these claims might seem particularly damaging. His established image as a reformer might still shield him from losing widespread support. How Lamichhane handles the situation—whether he confronts the issue head-on or tries to deflect responsibility—will be crucial.

Anurag Shrestha, 26

The success of the RSP party is built on a backdrop of mistrust towards established political parties. However, credit must be given to Rabi Lamichhane who has played a significant role in establishing the party as a political force. Most MPs and senior RSP leaders were relatively unknown before the last election, with figures like Sumana Shrestha, Biraj Shrestha, and Manish Jha only recently gaining prominence.

Lamichhane has long been a controversial figure, facing allegations ranging from personal issues to embezzlement during his time in the United States. Despite predictions of the RSP’s collapse following Lamichhane’s passport fiasco, the incident had little negative impact on his or the party’s image. Regarding the cooperative case, the parliamentary report called for further investigation, leaving some ambiguity regarding his role in it. The RSP views this as a victory, accusing main parties of political vendetta. But if Lamichhane is convicted or if a new political force arises, his controversial past might pose significant challenges for both him and the party.

Sushant Thapa, 31

If Rabi Lamichhane is guilty, the court proceedings should verify it. The committee which is formed to examine the embezzlement can’t be fully trusted. This kind of practice will lead to favor and fear politics. Lamichhane seems to be receiving special treatment with this kind of committee which is not good. The legal matters and its decision should be related to the court. There should not be a dual legal system in the country. The image of the party can be hampered if he is found guilty. It will be a challenge to the party to maintain their public image. People trust actions and not mere ideologies. The controversy seems to be a weakness of those who are in power.