Having served on the Board of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in Nepal as a civil society representative in its formative days, the author of this piece had an opportunity to look at the Project in greater detail much before it came into wider public discourse. For the last couple of months or so, it’s been nerve-wracking to hear all kind of nonsense being blurted out about MCC by media-hungry individuals who seem neither to have any knowledge of the world of development-aid nor appreciation of the modus operandi of the global geo-political ambitions.

The government of Nepal has declared 2020 as the Visit Nepal Year (VNY). The government hopes that two million tourists will come to the country and each will spend above $75 a day. Undoubtedly, our economy needs a boost and what better than backing the tourism industry to catapult our growth story to the next level?  Meanwhile, there has been criticism on the role of the government, especially, the pace with which things should have moved forward. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that it is “Visit Nepal Year” and not “Visit Nepal Government Year”. Therefore, we the people of Nepal have a solemn duty to contribute to making VNY successful.

TEL AVIV – We no longer live in an era in which wars are officially declared. The US drone strike that killed Qassem Suleimani, the charismatic commander of Iran’s Quds Force, is but one landmark event in a multiyear, multi-front war between the US and its allies and Iran and its many proxies.

School level education is becoming a burden for the state—whether in developed country like the US or the poor country like Nepal. In the US, education secretary has been criticized for not doing enough for upkeep of community schools. In India, school-level education and management of teachers are becoming burdensome tasks for different states. Teachers are seen as staging protests frequently.

Onion is an important vegetable crop in Nepal and it can be grown in all districts. Physiologically, it is a long-day plant and is normally planted in October/November and harvested in May/June. Per capita consumption of onion in Nepal is 7.7 kg, which is far below the world average of 10.8 kg. Even then the domestic production is not sufficient to meet the demand of the country resulting in unavoidable import.

Over the past few months, I had the opportunity to lead a skills lab for bachelor’s degree students of social work, trying to help them bridge the gap between theoretical and practical knowledge. There is no training that can make a youth completely ready for a job as only a continuous and engaging “on the job” experience can help her become the best she can be.

Winter is the best custodian of the nature. It may seem to muck things up but it rarely sucks them up. It makes beautiful young lady joggers look like shabby decoys wrapped in multiple layers of apparels installed in front of a store of a stingy uniform business owner. Likewise, handsome young men joggers look like nondescript and rundown scarecrows erected in the farmers’ fields.

HONG KONG – In recent years, fears of a new cold war between the United States and China have been proliferating. But the tensions between the two powers would be better described as a “cool war,” characterized not by old-fashioned spheres of interest, proxy wars, and the threat of “mutually assured destruction,” but by an unprecedented combination of wide-ranging competition and deep interconnection.

If parents take failure positively and encourage their children to keep trying, then their children will learn valuable life skills of not giving up

A wonderful way to start the future is by writing your thoughts, opinions, ideas and interpretation of your past and hopes, expectations and plans for