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DIY projects can be fun, inspiring, and help you save some money. It’s also good to surround yourself with things that have memories, stories, or emotions attached to them rather than things that are store bought and don’t have anything else apart from aesthetic value. If you’re looking for ideas on how to spruce up your living room or get crafty in the kitchen, check out some of these DIY Instagram accounts. A fair warning though, you will be scrolling for hours on end if you don’t set a screen time limit for yourself before you start exploring.

Oh Happy Day @ohhappyday

This page is filled with inspiration for picnics, adventures, great meals, parties, art, and among other things. It’s such a beautiful feed to look at too, with peppy pastel colors and gorgeous photos. You will find a lot of ideas and inspiration for throwing great parties and hosting dinners. There’s also décor and gift ideas. The owner of the page promotes simple luxuries with the focus on creating memories you will cherish. The posts inspire you to lead a slow, beautiful life. What we love about the page is the whimsical feel it has that put you in a lighter headspace.

Kelly Mindell @studiodiy

Kelly Mindell is the founder of Studio DIY, a blog that celebrates creativity in all its forms. From funky fashion to party-throwing and colorful recipes, there’s a lot on this account that is vibrant and fun. It’s mostly a party-planning and fashion tutorial. Mindell encourages people to play with colors to keep things interesting and fun. There are great storage and gift ideas that you can use along with posts that want you to replicate the setting in them because they are so stunning. If you want to create little nooks in your space but lack the know-how, this page can be your guide.

Meenakshi @behind_that_house

Meenakshi is a designer and lifestyle blogger who lives in Mumbai, India. Her Instagram page has many nifty tricks and tips to create beautiful things from items you have around the house. Learn to make a knot cushion from a throw, propagate a sweet potato, and even mix some fantastic cocktails. You will find a lot of festive décor ideas and inspiration in the page. With the festivals around the corner now, you can pick up some great tricks to entertain guests in style. There is a lot of flower play and ideas to elevate the look of simple things. Did you know you could freeze ice with pomegranate seeds to give your cocktails a fun twist? Want to learn how to make a tray from a simple painting? Behind that House has all that and more.

The Folding Hacks @thefoldinghacks

Most of us hate doing the laundry because it means we have to eventually fold and stow away our clothes. Our closets are often messy and we struggle to find things because we have randomly shoved our clothes into them. With The Folding Hacks, you can learn to fold a blanket or down jacket quickly, tie a cool looking bow in your dress, tuck a bed sheet neatly, and store jeans so that the entire pile doesn’t topple when you need the one at the bottom. Trust us, your life will be so much easier when you know how to fold and store your garments properly.

Paper Craft Ideas @paper_craft_ideas_

If you have a child at home or even if you don’t, Paper Craft Ideas is a great page to follow. There are fun things you can do when you are bored. Learn to make fun paper umbrella toppers for your cocktails, woolen flowers for that extra vase you have lying around, and a last-minute birthday or anniversary card with random bits and bobs. Your child can use some of the ideas to give their school projects a unique touch. There’s a good reason why this page has over eight million followers. There are over 2,500 posts that make for fun little projects, for children and adults alike.

Being a mom is a full-time job. Raising children is perhaps the hardest thing to do, perhaps even more difficult than giving birth to them. You are constantly on your toes and there are a zillion things to handle. If you happen to be a mother who has a job, it gets even worse. Juggling personal and professional responsibilities and staying on top of them is no easy feat. But mothers make it seem so effortless. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t feel the pressure. ApEx spoke to three working mothers to find out how they deal with it.

Sarita Shrestha, 32

As a working mom, I’m happy about the support that my family has given me. It gives me confidence and the ability to go about my work without worrying about my child. I have seen my female colleagues resign after delivery. Pregnancy and childbirth take a physical and mental toll on the mother’s health and many women suffer from postpartum depression as well.

As a working mom, time management is the biggest challenge for me. You need to be able to balance work and personal life. You have to take care of yourself and give time to your children. It’s not easy to be in the right frame of mind and on top of things and it’s something working moms struggle with all the time.

Arani Shakya, 32

Being a working mom, one of the challenging aspects is scheduling my day-to-day activities. I often find myself rescheduling things I have signed up for because there are personal responsibilities to handle. I don’t get to spend much time with my child and I fear I’m missing many milestones that would make for wonderful memories later on. I feel terrible. It’s almost like I live with constant guilt. Worse, some people think as a working mother I’m not giving my child enough attention. But working moms have a lot to juggle. We rarely have time for ourselves and our mental health.

Sangita Ramjali Shrestha, 36

I have two children and I believe that all working moms are super women. There’s just so much to do and you can’t afford to let things slide. You must be at the top of your game, both personally and professionally. The concept of a working mom is lovely but I constantly find myself going through a rollercoaster of conflicting emotions. Raising a child can be difficult if you don’t have the support of your family. I live in a joint family so things are easier for me. There’s always someone to take care of my children when I’m inundated with work. Personally, being a working mom takes a toll on me when my children are ill and I find myself unable to take time off from work. It’s when I feel at my lowest.

Ghyang Phedi Secondary School of Nuwakot saw 16 of the 17 students fail in the recent Secondary Education Examination (SEE), a staggering 95 percent failure rate that underscores significant deficiencies in the school’s educational system. A closer observation reveals multiple contributing factors, including prevalent child marriage, with some students already having children, which disrupts their focus and continuity in academics. Additionally, underqualified teachers and an insufficient number of staff have resulted in a substandard quality of education compared to private schools.

Geographical challenges exacerbate these issues, with many students forced to walk for hours to attend school, creating significant physical and time burdens. Unlike students in private schools who often attend extra tuition classes, students from Ghyang Phedi Secondary School are typically engaged in household chores after school, further detracting from their academic pursuits.

This problem is not isolated to Ghyang Phedi Secondary School but is indicative of a widespread issue across Nepal. An alarming 52.13 percent of SEE students nationwide have been categorized as non-graded, meaning that more students failed than passed—a record high in the last five years. This rise in the failure rate coincides with a policy change in Nepal's grading system. Since 2016, students needed a 1.6 GPA to progress to grade XI, regardless of individual subject scores. However, starting this year, students must achieve at least 35 percent in each subject, both in theory and internal assessments, to advance. Failure to meet these criteria necessitates retaking the subject, even if the overall GPA exceeds 1.6. This change, intended to reform the education system and improve the quality of human resources, has made it more difficult for students to pass. However, expecting meaningful results without adequate investment in resources is unrealistic.

Class differences, economic disparities, geographical challenges, and societal structures remain substantial barriers to quality education in Nepal. For instance, Bagmati Province had a failure rate of 33.88 percent, while Karnali Province saw a failure rate of 50.02 percent. In Lumbini Province, 61.2 percent of students failed, and Sudurpaschim Province had the highest failure rate at 68.12 percent. The stark contrast between private and government schools has been evident across Nepal for decades. Private schools consistently produce better results due to better staffing, funding, infrastructure, and access to course materials. Students from more affluent backgrounds attend private schools, while others are compelled to attend under-resourced government schools. Bagmati Province, which has the highest number of private schools, also has the lowest failure rate, highlighting the role of economic and class disparity in the quality of education.

Geographical challenges further compound these issues. Bagmati Province, with the best transportation infrastructure, has the highest number of students appearing for the SEE exam. In contrast, students in other provinces must walk for hours to attend school, depriving them of easy access to education. Only 53,446 students appeared for the SEE exam from Sudurpaschim Province, compared to 99,872 students from Bagmati Province.

Educationist Biddhyanath Koirala says that the results are affected by teachers’ inability to teach according to the interests and needs of students. He also noted that students and their guardians do not seem serious about education. However, these results are not merely due to a lack of motivation among students but reflect deeper problems embedded in the education system. The inability of government schools to provide quality education has been a major contributing factor.

Vice-principal of Ghyang Phedi Secondary School Prem Syangtan echoed these sentiments, stating that the problem is not limited to their school but is a nationwide issue affecting government schools. Students are weak at a basic level due to the lack of qualified teachers. Syangtan says that in private schools, underperforming teachers are removed, whereas this cannot happen in government schools. Private schools are driven by the goal of achieving high scores, while government schools struggle to complete the syllabus. Syangtan is dissatisfied with the current education system and calls for an urgent need to reform Nepal’s education system. 

It is the government’s duty to ensure the quality education in all government schools by hiring qualified teachers, conducting parent orientation programs, improving infrastructure, and providing academic support to students after school hours.

In this highly competitive world, if a company or a business venture wants to survive in the market, merely maximizing the consumers’ satisfaction is not enough. The methods, technologies and strategies adopted by the company plays a crucial role. This is where the concept of a non-compete clause comes into play. 

Sometimes also referred to as restrictive covenant, non-compete clause is a part of an employment contract that aims to restrict the ability of an employee, generally those who hold senior level, to join a competitor during and after the termination of a job. These clauses vary in their components but they typically include a specified time period, geographic restrictions specifying prohibited work areas, a description of  prohibited services or proprietary information, identification of competitors or general industry restrictions, and provisions regarding damages in the event of a breach. The idea is that an employer generally invests a significant amount of time in an employee’s training. So, an employer doesn’t become interested in training such employees who will later turn around and seek other competing options of employment. Meanwhile, the main purpose of incorporating such clauses in an employment contract is to protect trade secrets, confidential information, proprietary information and intellectual property of an employer. By safeguarding such valuable assets, a competitive edge of a company is maintained. 

The practice of non-compete clauses is more common in sectors like IT, tech, finance and professional services, as employees in such industries often have to deal with sensitive information, client information and also there is prevalence of immense competition within such sectors.  A non-compete clause helps the company maintain their market share by putting a restriction on the movement of an employee to a rival company. However, recently such a clause has expanded into medium and small sized enterprises as well. 

Enforceability of non-compete clause in different jurisdictions

Irrespective of the ever-expansion of the non-compete clause in an employment, there has been a constant ongoing debate regarding its enforceability post the termination. Supporters of this clause claim that, non-compete clause is essential in order to protect the confidential information of the employer while critics argue that post-termination non-compete clause restricts an employee’s right to employment and living by limiting entrepreneurship and innovation, ultimately obstructing economic growth of the country. The enforceability of this clause varies widely across jurisdictions, influenced by different criterias like reasonableness of their scope, time duration and geographical limitations. 

USA: In the USA the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned a non-compete clause nationwide on 23 April 2024. According to Lina M Khan, the chairperson of FTC, “Non-compete clauses keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism, including from more than 8,500 new startups that would be created a year once non-competes are banned. The FTC’s final rule to ban non-competes will ensure that Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market.” Thus, the final rule by FTC bans nearly all the non-compete agreement between an employer and an employee. However, it hasn't explicitly kept a bar on non-disclosure agreements. 

UK: In the UK,  non-compete clauses are only enforceable to the extent that is necessary to protect the legitimate interest of an employer and is no wider than reasonably necessary. Simply demonstrating that the employer will endure from “more competition” isn't considered as a legitimate business interest. In wide terms, the courts have perceived that a legitimate business interest may incorporate protecting trade connections and, more by and large, goodwill, trade secrets and confidential information. The UK government in the policy paper “Smarter Regulation to Grow the Economy” proposed to limit the time duration of non-compete clauses in an employment contract to 3 months. 

One of the interesting concepts brought forth by the UK is the garden leave clause. It  is a practice where an employee who has resigned or been terminated  is required to stay away from the work during a notice period, while still being paid. 

Nepal: The Constitution of Nepal states in Article 33(2) that “Every citizen shall have the right to choose his own employment”. Similarly, Article 517 2(a) of the National Civil Code, 2074 makes a contract void that prevents anyone from engaging in any profession, trade  or business  not prohibited by law. However, as an exception, Section 517 2(a)(4) of  the same Code provides that an employment contract in which a person agrees not to work  for a competitor while he is still  employed or for a specified period after his retirement can be considered as a valid contract. It is noteworthy that the above provision of Nepal has confirmed both  pre- and post-termination non-compete clauses. But such  a clause must be for a specific period  and cannot be extended indefinitely.

Under Article 535 of the National Civil Code 2074, if one party breaches a contract, including a non-compete clause, the other party may claim compensation for any loss suffered. This provision is intended to protect businesses by providing  legal recourse for breaches  that harm their interests. In addition, Section 537 grants the injured party the right to recover actual loss or damage from the breaching party. However, it should be noted that the burden of proving the actual loss occurred due to the breach of the non-compete clause rests with the employer itself.

Potential alternatives to non-compete clauses 

There are viable alternatives to non-compete agreements which rather than restricting, support ideas, innovation and entrepreneurship. Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are one option to protect confidential information without limiting an employee's future employment opportunities. Another strategy is to introduce garden leave agreements, in which departing employees are paid time off during a notice period, but are not prevented from joining a competitor at a later date.

Nevertheless, it can be said that in practice, the enforceability of a non-compete clause is dependent upon different factors like reasonability, necessity and legitimate business interest of the employer. A nuanced approach shall be taken by carefully evaluating each case in order to ensure that these agreements or clauses strike a fair balance. While aiming to strike a fair balance, the bargaining power between the employer and an employee must be well inspected. This approach aims to prevent non-compete clauses from unfairly restricting individuals’ opportunities to earn a living while still safeguarding businesses from unfair competition.