Recently, the government has registered Policy Research Institute (PRI) Bill 2019 in Upper House to promote good governance by formulating government policies based on research. In the previous days such centers would work like Social Welfare Council under the development committee. The recent bill aims to make think tanks independent. The sole purpose of the PRI is to conduct study and research on various topics including diplomacy and foreign affairs, international relations, military affairs and socio-economic issues and it also provides suggestions to the government on policy making.

Binod BK, 30, explains that being a transman in Nepal is challenging. Hailing from Syangja, one of the rural districts of Nepal, Binod’s childhood was smeared in stigma and discrimination from his family, friends, and society. “I knew from the very beginning that even though I was born as a girl, I felt like a man.” In school, Binod was mercilessly bullied because of his choice. He shares, “Girls were required to wear skirts, and tie a ponytail, but I opted to wear pants. It was my way of telling the world that I felt like a boy. But, my classmates didn’t get me.”

Hindson Bethan (2009) mentions that menstruation taboos universally prevailed up to the mid-twentieth century in the world although anthropologists and historians did not make these taboos the subject of research until recently. Likewise, M Guterman and others (2007) provide that major religions of the world, without exception, have placed restrictions on menstruating women. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism have made statements about menstruation and its negative effect on women, leading to prohibitions about physical intimacy, cooking, attending places of worship, and sometimes requiring women to live separately from men.

KREUZLINGEN – Artificial intelligence is permeating almost every aspect of life in advanced economies. From governments to businesses to individuals, AI’s reach is sweeping, and its implementation is proving transformational.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV is a Public Health Emergency of international concern. The highest level of international solidarity and cooperation is needed to protect health and keep people safe. Since the novel coronavirus emerged late December, the number of cases reported globally has climbed. Human-to-human transmission has been reported in a number of countries. It is imperative that countries report and share information on suspected cases early, provide detailed reports on confirmed cases, and ensure all people receive the care they need in accordance with the rights and dignity that is due.

Every year, Pakistanis all over the world observe February 5 as ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’—a designated day to express a feeling and a sentiment that the whole Pakistani nation nurtures 365 days a year.

PARIS – The 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army is an occasion marked by angst as well as sadness. Anti-Semitism is back with a vengeance around the world, as if the lessons of the Holocaust had evaporated with time—or, even worse, had never been fully integrated into our collective consciousness.

Almost 32 years after the first communist state of the Soviet Union was declared in 1917 and right before the birth of the Communist State in China in October 1949, Nepal’s first communist party was declared in September 1949.  Thereafter, multiple communist parties have been born and their meandering paths and their divergent ideological stands have triggered an ever more complex iteration.

NEW HAVEN – With the benefit of full-year data, only now are we becoming aware of the danger the global economy narrowly avoided in 2019. According to the International Monetary Fund’s latest estimates, world GDP grew by just 2.9 percent last year—the weakest performance since the outright contraction in the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009 and far short of the 3.8 percent pace of post-crisis recovery over the 2010-18 period.

World Wetland Day (WWD) was celebrated on February 2 this year. This marks the day of signing the first environmental treaty, Ramsar Convention (1971), in the Iranian city of Ramsar. The Convention defines wetland as “areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt including areas of marine water, the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metre”.