CAMBRIDGE – Aristotle was right. Humans have never been atomized individuals, but rather social beings whose every decision affects other people. And now the COVID-19 pandemic is driving home this fundamental point: each of us is morally responsible for the infection risks we pose to others through our own behavior.

The WHO South-East Asia Region is entering a new phase in its pandemic response. In recent weeks the spread of COVID-19 in the Region has slowed, due in large part to the unprecedented physical distancing measures that countries implemented early and aggressively. Several Member States are now preparing to safely transition towards a “new normal” in which social and economic life can function amid low disease transmission. To do that successfully, countries must continue to be bold, decisive and mobilize the full power of their whole-of-government, whole-of-society approaches.

Coronavirus outbreak is a global pandemic that has ravaged the world instilling anxiety, fear, and negativity in almost every one of us. It has forced us to confine ourselves to our homes suppressing our human impulses for connection and making social distancing the new normal. However, maintaining social distancing isn’t as easy as we thought it to be. Not because we don’t like staying at our homes but because humans are innately social and have always lived in groups. Therefore, when we are forced to physically stay away from others it disrupts our fundamental need for human connection.

Baishakh comes to us adorned with the splendors of Spring. Corona scare has locked us within our houses and most of our daily routines and social life have come to a screeching halt. But nature has not stopped her cycles of seasons, birds have not stopped chirping, and flowers are blooming in all their colors as if nothing has happened.

Recession fears were hovering even before the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis. There were lots of predictions about the global recession in 2020. Widespread trade tensions among countries, Brexit uncertainty and slow growth in Eurozone, Asian market slowdown, erratic commodities price were some of the reasons for a global recession in 2020. The argument for and against it was there on its highest altitude. However, once the coronavirus appeared as an unwanted guest, the global economy slid into gloomy states, and the recession ensued.

The scenarios are examples of measures to protect important information. Whether that information is in the form of spoken word, a document or other important item, the degree of precaution and the level of security measure used depends upon the importance of the concerned item. The challenge to ensure data security has increased manifolds with the advent of cyberspace. The sudden explosion in the amount of personal and organizational digital data along with the necessity to get connected to the outside world has posed an amplified challenge to secure data.

Debate on civil society has arisen in the midst of Covid-19 crisis and at the height of political conflict in the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) which does not need to be elaborated here for the obvious reasons. The debate however, once again, is centered on who the ‘civil society’ in Nepal is. The predominant view with regard to civil society is such that it is an independent sphere having capacity to create counterbalance to the state and market (also with the power of the Church in the Christian West few centuries ago) which, in turn, would work to uphold ‘voices of the voiceless’ and facilitate with appropriate agencies in fulfilling their concerns.

LONDON – I had been captive in Afghanistan for about two weeks when the government of my home country, Canada, contacted those attempting to negotiate my release. They told negotiators to get me on the phone the next day, when the United States military would be flying a drone over where they thought I was being held, in order to determine my whereabouts.

Governments and people around the world now are fighting against COVID-19. As with other disasters and emergencies, COVID-19 has impacted all groups of people differently.  Students are the worst affected by this pandemic.

The Constitution of Nepal-2015 has allocated the power of state among one federal government, seven provincial and 753 local governments, called rural and urban municipalities. Elections of these institutions were held in 2017 and all the office bearers are in place to run the business of the country. A big debate is going on among various sections of Nepali society in respect of the performance of these elected institutions in leading the country, alleviating the hardship of the people and taking the country to the path of prosperity. The issues grappling the public discourse are about rampant corruption, nepotism, favoritism, poor service delivery and high incidence of taxes, fee and charges sapping up the meager income of the people.