Submit your Article

The public debt till mid-January of the current fiscal year has exceeded Rs 2,536 billion.

According to the Public Debt Management Office, Nepal's total public debt has exceeded 44 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the past six months, Rs 102 billion has been added to the public debt.

At the beginning of the current fiscal year that commenced on July 16, the size of public debt was Rs 2, 434 billion 90 million and it rose by Rs 102 billion 30 million to reach Rs 2, 536 billion 130 million by January 15, the Office said in its report.

 This constitutes 44.46 per cent of the GDP.  The contribution of foreign debt to the total public debt is 51.31 percent amounting to Rs 1301 billion 410 million while the ratio of external debt to the GDP is 22.81 percent.

The Office said that of the total public debt, the internal debt liability amounts to 48.68 percent or Rs 1234 billion 714 million while on the basis of the GDP, this is 21.64 percent and the external debt makes up 22.81 percent.

The government had the target of raising public debt of Rs 547 billion in the current fiscal year (2082-82 BS) and it has raised Rs 240 billion 80 million or 43.89 per cent of the annual target by mid-January or the first half-yearly of the current fiscal.

The government had the target of raising Rs 330 billion as the internal debt in the current fiscal year and it has raised Rs 181 billion 50 million or 54.86 percent.

Similarly, the government has the target of mobilizing Rs 217 billion in external loans and until January 15, it raised Rs 59 billion 30 million or 27.20 million.

 The government had allocated Rs 402 billion 850 million budget for reimbursement of the principal and interest of the public debt in the current fiscal year.

Principal and interest worth Rs 182 billion 400 million has been paid by mid-January, the Office stated in its report. The expenditure made for paying the principal and interest until January 15 is 3.20 percent of the total GDP.

Annapurna Media Network Chairman and Captain Rameshwar Thapa has successfully completed a Tandem Skydiving Jump from an altitude of 13000 feet.

With this, he displayed exceptional courage and adventure spirit.

Tandem Skydive Jump is a skydiving experience where two people jump out of an airplane together, strapped to one another during the entire descent.

The census of water birds has started from the Rapti River in Kusum of Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality-1.

Birendra Kandel, Chief Conservation Officer of Banke National Park, shared that the census has been started from the Rapti River in Banke. “Like every year, this year too we have started the census of water birds from the Rapti River,” he said.

During the bird census this year, various species of birds have been captured on camera on the first day itself.

Ornithologist Ram Shahi, who has reached Rapti for the bird census, said that the bird habitats have been disappearing in recent times.

He said that the bird habitats have been disappearing due to human activities in the river, wetlands and water bodies.

Likewise, Conservationist Ashish Chaudhary said that bird censuses have been conducted every winter for the past three years.

The number of water birds is found to be decreasing due to the construction work being done in the bird habitats, the indiscriminate use of pesticides, and the increasing movement of people, he said.

A team including ornithologists, conservationists, park officials, security personnel and others has been mobilized to count birds in the Rapti River since Saturday.

The team will visit Banke National Park, Rapti River, wetlands and watershed to count birds during their stay in Banke, according to Banke National Park authorities.

During the count, the team will visit Kanti Lake in Nepalgunj, Sutaiya Lake in Baijnath, and Mankhola on the border of Bardiya, among other places, shared ornithologist Shahi. 

The Daai or traditional way of threshing paddy is be marked as a festival in Pokhara starting today.

The festival has been organized with the aim of introducing the traditional way of threshing the paddy to the new generation and visiting tourists.

Host, Pokhara Tourism Council, also believes that the festival would help attract tourists even during the current off-season.

The traditional Daai Festival is being held at the Fewa ground in Pokhara Municipal Corporation-23 and aims to preserve the tradition by involving tourists and local youth, said the Council Chair Taranath Pahari.

The tourists in Pokhara will be given a first-hand experience of Nepal's traditional agricultural system.

Furthermore, this festival will be established to pass down the traditional farming system from generation to generation, he said.

The Pokhara Tourism Council has been organizing a paddy transplantation festival every year in the month of Asar in the Lunar calendar to promote tourism by preserving cultivable land, keeping alive the traditional farming system, and the tradition of enjoying Asare Bhaka or songs and Dahi Chiura (yoghurt mixed with curd).

The first Daai Festival is expected to be successful in preserving the productivity of cultivable land within Pokhara Metropolis, currently on the decline due to the fragmentation of the land, said General Secretary of the Council, Jeevan Raj Sapkota. –––