Submit your Article

There is a possibility of heavy rainfall in three provinces across the country today.

According to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Sudur Paschim, Lumbini and Karnali provinces could see heavy rainfall.

Likewise, light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning is likely at few places in the hilly areas and few places in the rest of the country in the next 24 hours.

During the night, there is a chance of light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning at few places in Lumbini province and with partial to normal showers in few places in the rest of the country.

According to the Weather Forecasting Division, the minimum temperature of Kathmandu Valley today is 20.3 degrees and the maximum temperature is 30.5 degrees Celsius. Similarly, the minimum temperature of Jumla today is 16.9 degrees and the maximum temperature of Dipayal is 35.2 degrees Celsius.

A person died in a truck accident in Gulmi on Sunday.

The deceased has been identified as truck driver Rana Bahadur Dhange (35) of Gulmidurbar-3.

The District Police Office, Gulmi said that Dhange died on the spot.

The truck (Lu 1 Kha 1866) was heading towards Deurali of Tamghas from Simichaur of Resunga Municipality-10 when the incident occurred this morning.

Police said that the truck fell some 150 meters down the road.

Twelve people have been killed after a bus carrying Polish pilgrims veered off a road in Croatia on Saturday and ended up in a ditch, BBC reported.

All 32 surviving passengers are said to be injured, 19 of them seriously.

The trip, organised by the Brotherhood of St Joseph Catholic group, included three priests and six nuns. They were travelling to Medjugorje, a Catholic shrine in Bosnia.

The passengers were all Polish adults, said the Polish Foreign Ministry.

The bus left from the Polish city of Czestochowa on Friday night following a prayer service. The passengers were from various regions of Poland, the foreign ministry said.

The accident happened at around 05:40 local time (04:50 GMT) when the bus they were travelling in veered off the A4 road between Jarek Bisaski and Podvorec, north-east of Zagreb.

Poland's justice minister and prosecutor general have ordered the Warsaw Prosecutors Office to launch an investigation into the cause of the tragedy, and two Polish ministers are heading to Croatia in the wake of the incident, according to BBC.

It was initially reported that 11 people had been killed, but one more person died later in hospital. 

"Some of the injured passengers are fighting for their lives," Croatian Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, adding in a post on Twitter that emergency services were doing all they could to help. 

Pilgrimages to the small town of Medjugorje are very popular in Poland following reports that local children saw a vision of the Virgin Mary there in the 1980s, BBC reported.

Slumping foreign reserves have raised fears that Nepal could be another Sri Lanka in the making. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has increased the cost of imports, saddling Nepal’s economy with galloping inflation.

According to the World Bank, exporting countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, and Mexico are seeing significant decline in their manufacturing capacity, particularly in energy-intensive sectors, as a result of the war. Crop exporters such as Turkey, Brazil, and India, as well as fossil fuel exporters like Nigeria and Middle-East countries are also facing difficulty with exports.

Analyzing the data from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Nepal gets almost two-thirds of the goods—from petroleum to cereals—from India. With India itself grappling with the economic jolt dealt by the Russia-Ukraine war, Nepal is not just importing goods but also inflation. Currently, every exporting country that Nepal relies on has been facing a price hike, which automatically drives up the import rates. 

Looking at the data, Nepal’s import bill seems to be increasing in the alternate years we tracked, starting from the fiscal year 2009/10. The increment started well ahead of the Russian-Ukraine war. The war only acted as a catalyst to push Nepal towards an economic crisis.

The government has enforced restrictions on the import of luxury goods to maintain the country’s dwindling foreign currency reserves, but it continues to import the essentials like petroleum and cereals, as well as raw materials like iron and steel at increased rates. 

Easier to import goods than manufacture them in Nepal

Pabitra Bajracharya, President, Nepal Retailers Association 

Although we can see that the import cost has reduced significantly in 2020, it was a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The import rate, without a doubt, will escalate in the coming years. One of the solutions to reducing imports is promoting domestic goods. But the policy for domestic production is not favorable for investors as well as industry owners. 

Our policies have made it easier to import goods rather than manufacture them within the country, increasing the country’s dependency on foreign goods. The reason for this is the higher cost of manufacturing in Nepal. 

Moreover, importing raw materials, ensuring the manufacture of final goods and hoping to make profit out of them are tedious processes. It is far easier to import, which also ensures profit for a lot of businesspersons. 

There is also the insecurity of not being able to attract an adequate number of buyers. This insecurity is driving up imports and discouraging local manufacturing. 

The constant increase in the import cost seen over the last decade might be pushing Nepal towards a devastating economic crisis. The Russia-Ukraine war has hugely affected the import rate. 

If we do not proceed with caution, Nepal will become the next Sri Lanka before we know it.