Railway passengers without ticket to be fined Rs 25,000

If anyone travels without buying a ticket in the railway, the person will have to pay cash penalty of Rs 25,000.
The government has – in the new Railway Bill – brought some of the strict provisions, as the Janakpur-Jayanagar railway is about to start operation. After being endorsed by the House of Representatives, the government today tabled the Railway Bill at the National Assembly for final approval.
The government has been long planning to operate railway services in a number of possible routes in and out of the Kathmandu Valley. “Apart from the railway service between Kurtha of Janakpur and Jaynagar of India, the government is planning to operate the new transport means in Kathmandu-Raxaul, Kathmandu-Kyirong and Nijgadh-Hetauda-Bharatpur routes. Likewise, the East West Electrified Railway is also an ambitious project that the government has planned in order to improve connectivity within the country.
Currently, the sector is managed under the provisions of Railways Act 1963 but the government has revived Nepal Railway Company by revising the organisational structure of the old company, and also with a legal teeth. A fully autonomous Nepal Railway Board will work as the regulator of the sector, the Bill reads, adding that the board will be authorised to manage separate travelling ticket examiner to ascertain whether passengers are traveling with ticket or not.
The Bill has provision allowing the Nepali company to extend railway service in other countries or foreign companies to extend their services up to Nepali land. Likewise, any foreign company wishing to operate railway service via Nepali land to connect to the third countries will be given permission based on mutual agreement, it reads.
“The government in accordance with the concerned countries can enforce its own conditions, mechanism and work guidelines,” the bill reads, allowing the government to form a separate unit for the security of the railway lines and related services. It has sought a separate license for the operator of the railway service. “But the operator must be a 10 grade pass or above to be eligible for the job.”

Coronavirus to eat up to 2 per cent of GDP: ADB

The loss to economy due to the 15-day nationwide lockdown – to contain novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) – can range between one per cent and two per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
According to the Nepal Macroeconomic Update – a flagship publication of the ADB – that is launched today, Nepal’s economic growth shrink to 5.3 per cent in the current fiscal year 2019-20, largely due to the novel coronavirus disease. The ADB had earlier projected 6.3 per cent economic growth while the government – in the fiscal policy for the current fiscal year – has targeted to achieve 8.5 per cent economic growth. Though finance minister Dr Yuba Raj Khatiwada revised the budget size downwards by Rs 147 billion in February owing to its failure to boost capital spending, Khatiwada – who is also former central bank governor and National Planning Commission (NPC) vice chair – still claims that the country will achieve 8.5 per cent economic growth.
Likewise, the finance minster still claims to contain inflation under 6 per cent, despite the shortage of essential goods in the market. “The average annual inflation in the fiscal year 2019-20 could be higher than the anticipated rate, if the situation further worsens due to Covid-19 pandemic,” the ADB report reads.
In its projection of economic impact of Covid-19 on Nepal, ADB has considered three scenarios, the best case scenario, normal and the worst case scenario.
The first scenario is based on the current situation faced by Nepal and policy measures implemented thereof. The nationwide lockdown has brought major economic activities to a standstill. Manufacturing industries have closed their operations, with only few of those producing essential items – medical supplies, food and dairy products – remaining open. Apart from those providing essential services, all other offices have been closed. Domestic and international trade has substantially slowed down.
If this situation normalises soon and the lockdown is removed from April 8, the loss to the economy may be restricted to about only 1 per cent of GDP, the report reads, adding that the second scenario assumes that the nationwide lockdown will prolong for weeks. While import of essential goods may continue during this period, all other economic activities will be severely affected, and foreign earnings will be hard-hit, domestic production will be badly affected, hundreds of thousands of people living on daily wages may be pushed to further poverty due to prolonged shutdown of the economy and remittance income will substantially fall as out-migration will be totally discontinued. “Under this scenario, the ADB projects the economy will lose about 1.6 per cent of GDP,” it reads.
The third scenario assumes the further prolongation of the nationwide lockdown for one or two months with the sporadic rise of Covid-19 cases in Nepal. This will put pressure on Nepal’s relatively weak health systems. “Under this scenario, the economy will lose about two per cent of GDP,” the report reads, adding, on a positive note, that the economy may rebound to 6.4 per cent in the next year fiscal year 2020-21, with the resurgence of economic activities post-Covid. “It also estimates that inflation will moderate at 5.5 per cent in the next fiscal year.”
The downside risks to the outlook in fiscal 2020-21 include natural hazards – erratic monsoons and floods – that could depress farm output and damage infrastructure. “Should the capacity deficiencies at the provincial and local levels persist, sub-national spending will remain weak,” it adds.
Moreover, the pervasiveness of Covid-19 pandemic could paralyse the economy, if the disease persists for long. The pandemic will weaken global demand, affecting out-migration for foreign employment and put pressure on Nepal’s external stability, states ADB.

Loss measured in constant prices

Sector	Scenario I	Scenario II	Scenario III
Agriculture	1069.8	1663.7	2733.5
Loss as a percentage of sector GDP	0.4	0.6	1
Industry	1721.4	3552.2	4234.5
Loss as a percentage of sector GDP	1.3	2.6	3.1
Services	5763.9	8640.1	9982
Loss as a percentage of sector GDP	1.2	1.8	2.1
Wholesale and retail 1835.1	3145.9		3801.3
Loss as a percentage of sector GDP	0.4	0.7	0.8
Hotel and restaurant	442.8	590.3	664.1
Loss as a percentage of sector GDP	0.09	0.1	0.1
Transport, storage and communications	450.2	2251	2701.2
Loss as a percentage of sector GDP	0.1	0.5	0.6
Total loss (economy-wide)	8555.1	13856	16950.1
Total loss as a percentage of GDP	1	1.6	2

(Rs million)

WHO calls for stronger whole of society approach in South-East Asia Region

Amidst rapid spread of Covid-19 and continuing challenges, the World Health Organisation (WHO) today emphasised on a stronger whole of society and whole of government effort in South-East Asia Region to prevent a long-haul with the pandemic and avert further loss of precious human and other resources.
“A more comprehensive approach is needed with communities at the center of our response,” regional director at the WHO South-East Asia Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh said, adding that most importantly, communities need to be engaged and empowered to take appropriate decisions and measures. “The onus must be on each one.”
At this stage, everyone needs to contribute to minimise health as well as socio-economic impact of the pandemic,” she said.
In recent days and weeks, countries in the Region have taken difficult decisions including implementation of unprecedented physical distancing measures to arrest the virus spread.
Nearly 1.5 billion people – in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand together – are currently experiencing lockdowns. Supported by communities, we should start to see impact of these measures in the coming weeks, she said, adding that simultaneously, this is also an opportunity for countries to enhance capacities of their health systems. “As physical distancing measures take effect and capacities are built, whatever the transmission scenario, with the right approach the virus can be contained.”
“In areas where community transmission occurs, it can be suppressed and controlled, the regional director said.
“Every case, cluster and evidence of community transmission would need to be aggressively responded to,” according to Dr Khetrapal Singh. “Basic public health measures such as active case detection, isolation, testing, treatment and contact tracing are among our most powerful tools,” she said, adding, “A strong surveillance is needed to assess and guide evidence based measures.”
The regional director also held a virtual meeting with health ministers of the Region to review the challenges. Most countries highlighted the need for essential medical equipment, testing kits, personal protective equipment for health workers and enhancing health systems capacities, specially to respond to community transmission.
The regional director said WHO will continue to work with the Pandemic Supply Chain Network to ensure all at-risk and critically affected countries are supported. “These shortages are a global problem, and one that will have a significant impact on the response,” she said. “If we cannot protect health workers, and are unable to adequately test, we will be fighting with one arm tied.”
The regional director commended countries in the Region for participating in the WHO Solidarity Trial. India, Indonesia and Thailand have signed up for the multi-country trial, which will compare the safety and effectiveness of four different drugs or drug combinations against Covid-19.
“It is a historic undertaking that will dramatically reduce the time needed to generate robust evidence about what drugs are effective in treating Covid-19,” Dr Khetrapal Singh said, adding that the more countries that join, the faster we will have the results. “I urge all countries to sign up.”
WHO will soon be launching a second protocol for the Solidarity Trial that will help establish incidence and prevalence of infection and the future behaviour of the virus, she added.

Economy to shrink to 5.3 per cent

Economy is anticipated to shrink to 5.3 per cent (at market prices) in the current fiscal year 2019-20, down from 7.1 per cent a year earlier, according to the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2020, the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) annual flagship economic publication.
“The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent nationwide lockdown that is necessary to contain the contagion will adversely affect the economy,” said ADB country director for Nepal Mukhtor Khamudkhanov. “Industry and services face supply disruptions,” he said, adding that remittances will likely decline during the last quarter of this fiscal year, dampening domestic demand. “Growth will also be slower as a result of lower rice production.”
If the situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic further worsens, growth could be lower than currently anticipated, he added.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, ADB had forecast a 6.3 per cent growth while the government had aimed for an ambitious target of 8.5 per cent. While the bank has made necessary revisions taking the pandemic into account, the government is yet to revise its growth forecast.
According to the Nepal Macroeconomic Update, which is released today, average annual inflation will inch up to 6 per cent, up from 4.6 per cent a year earlier, reflecting lower production and supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Headline inflation has averaged 6.5 per cent in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, significantly higher than 4.2 per cent a year earlier,” the report reads, adding that food inflation increased by 9.8 per cent as of mid-February 2020 compared to a year earlier, with significant increase in the prices of vegetables, spices, and alcoholic beverages. “The temporary closure of international borders over COVID-19 concern has nudged up food prices.”
The average annual inflation for the current fiscal year could be higher than anticipated, if the situation further worsens due to the Covid-19 pandemic, adds the report.
Likewise, merchandise trade deficit narrowed by 4.9 per cent year-on-year in the first seven months of the current fiscal year after widening by 15 per cent in the year-earlier period. The deficit contracted on higher export growth, particularly of palm oil and cardamom to India and reduced import of construction materials, vehicles, and petroleum products. The improved trade balance has helped contain current account deficit to $1 billion in the fiscal year through mid-February 2020 from $1.5 billion in the corresponding period a year earlier. The deficit is forecast to narrow from 7.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the last fiscal year to 5.4 per cent on shrinking imports of petroleum products, capital, and consumer goods. However, it could be higher if remittances fall substantially in the last quarter of the current fiscal year.
ADB, however, projects Nepal’s GDP to recover at 6.4 per cent for the next fiscal year 2020-21, assuming a quick end to the Covid-19 pandemic, a return to pre-Covid economic activities, and a normal monsoon. The government of Nepal expects a couple of large infrastructure projects, namely the 456-megawatt (MW) Upper Tamakoshi Hydroelectric Plant and Gautam Buddha International Airport, to be commercially operational by the next fiscal year 2020-21, the report reads, adding that expectation of higher subnational level spending will also stimulate growth.
Average annual inflation will stay moderate at 5.5 per cent in the next fiscal year 2020-21, assuming a reversal to normal activities after the Covid-19 disruption, better harvest, subdued oil prices, and a modest uptick of inflation in India. The current account deficit is expected to widen from 5 per cent of GDP in the current fiscal year to 5.6 per cent – next fiscal year – as imports of capital goods increase. The deficit will, however, be largely contained by lower oil prices, a gradual reduction in the import of fossil fuel with better electricity supply, and higher hydroelectricity exports to India, according to the report.
Downside risks to the outlook in the next fiscal year 2020-21 are the pervasiveness of the Covid-19 pandemic that could paralyze the economy, if the outbreak persists. Natural hazards like erratic monsoons and flood could depress farm output and damage infrastructure. Persistent capacity deficiencies regarding project and program execution at the provincial and local levels will weaken subnational spending, the report reads, adding that exogenous shocks such as the Covid-19 pandemic will weaken global demand, affecting out-migration for foreign employment and putting pressure on Nepal’s external stability.

Six Nepalis makes their way to Asia’s ‘Forbes Top 30 Under 30’

Six Nepali youth have made to the list on Forbes’ 30 Under 30’ list, together with some 300 young entrepreneurs from Asia.
Golfer Pratima Sherpa, co-founders of Urban Girl Nikita Acharya and Kiran Timsina, Pad2Go’s founders Shubhangi Rana and Jesselina Rana, and Foodmario co-founder Rohit Tiwari are the young Nepalis, who made it to the list this year beating out thousands of other nominations.
Out of the 3,500 nominations, they were selected for their promise in their respective fields, and were dubbed change-makers and leaders by industry insiders for disrupting industries and inspiring change in various fields, according to the Forbes, the American business journal.
Golfer Pratima Sherpa, who is currently attending Santa Barbara City College in California, dreams to be Nepal’s first female professional golfer and wants to represent the country one day. “But her first club, at age 11, was a wooden stick that her father made from a branch, “the Forbes writes, adding that she is Nepal’s first ranked amateur female golfer today. Having grown up in a maintenance shed at the Royal Nepal Golf Club near Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), she was featured by ESPN and several other outlets for her drive, determination and promise in her sport. Due to the news published by the popular golf magazine ‘Golf Digest’, she shot into popularity. “A top-ranked golfer at the time Tiger Woods called her to the United States after he read the news that she had been playing golf since the age of 7,” the ‘Golf Digest’ wrote.
Likewise, started by Nikita Acharya and Kiran Timsina with an investment of $200, Urban Girl is a successful e-commerce store that sells branded clothing, accessories, cosmetics, and runs Urban Girl Cakes that employs and trains deaf women, as a business associated with the Gandaki Deaf Association. According to Forbes, the business now employs more than 50 people in Kathmandu and Pokhara.
The site that started by selling fashion jewelry and customised products like T-shirts and water bottles has now expanded to a broader range of products like makeup, home decor, and electronics.
And this is not the first time Pad2Go’s founders – a human rights lawyer and an engineer duo – have been awarded. Setting up vending machines for sanitary napkins for women, to remove menstrual taboo and raise awareness of menstrual health, the initiative started in 2018 as a not-for-profit.
Established in 2018, Pad2Go is a for-profit social enterprise to focus on menstrual health and remove the taboos around it. Now with 80 vending machines, and a suite of workshops to raise awareness and remove taboo, Pad2Go has also won first prize at the AGUASAN workshop in Switzerland in 2019. It also conducts workshops to address taboos around menstruation and works with manufacturers of sanitary napkins to get them cheaply.
Likewise, Tiwari co-founded Foodmario – a digital platform that connects home chefs with customers to deliver home-cooked food – two years ago, with an idea of selling home-cooked food for delivery, cooked by anyone from housewives to students. Having served more than 100,000 meals thus far, with approximately 34 employees, the business has been looking at expanding its offerings to cities like Butwal, Narayanghat, Chitwan, Pokhara, Biratnagar and Itahari, according to the Forbes.
Though, this year, Forbes’ 30 Under 30-Asia’ list includes young entrepreneurs from Nepal, the Philippines, Malaysia, Bangladesh, South Korea, and others, who have been the caretakers of social change, this is not the first time Nepali youth made it to the 30 Under 30 Asia list of the Forbes. The list is published every year in 10 categories of enterprise, exploration, sports, art, social change and others.
In 2019 also, some Nepali youth made it to the list, whereas in 2018, Forbes listed 4 Nepali young entrepreneurs including Ayushi KC from Khalisisi, Anjal Niraula from Gham Power, Eco-Cell Industries and an activist Kanchan Amatya made it to the 30 Under 30 Asia list.
Ayushi KC – a 28-year-old entrepreneur – was enlisted in Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2018. Founder of Khalisisi – a platform where peoples and organisation can connect the garbage collectors (Khalisisi Friends) – KC was then working in a motive towards zero-waste in Nepal. She founded Khalsisi Management Pvt Ltd, before she worked for USAID.
Likewise, listed under industry, manufacturing and energy category, Anjal Niraula (28) was then managing director of Gham Power, a company that develops solar micro-grid and commercial off-grid system. Having started in Nepal in 2010, the company has already installed 2.5MW of solar micro-grids across more than 2000 projects.
Likewise, listed under the Social Entrepreneurs Category, Eco-Cell Industries was founded by Nishan Shrestha, Sachet Pandit, and Subash Shrestha in the wake of the 2015 devastating earthquake to create a fast ad cheap way to reconstructing buildings.
Similarly, the 23 year-old Kanchan Amatya was then activist and entrepreneur, who founded of Sustainable Fish Farming Initiative (SFFI), and was listed under Social Entrepreneurs category by Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2018.

Government formally cancels Visit Nepal Year 2020

The government has formally suspended the much ambitious Visit Nepal Year 2020 (VNY2020) project in the wake of the Covid-19 global pandemic, though tourism minister had earlier notified informally about suspending the year-long-event till April.
Though the government has a month ago stopped all the promotional activities in and out of the country due to corona pandemic, a Cabinet meeting two weeks ago – on March 22 – has decided to suspend the campaign, according to tourism secretary Keshav Bahadur Adhikari. “I received a notice yesterday regarding the stalling of the project,” he said, adding that the VNY secretariat will also be dissolved on April 13. Twitting the cabinet decision, the secretary confirmed the government move.
Though tourism minister Yogesh Bhattarai has been claiming of observing ‘Visit Decade’, in lieu of the Visit Nepal Year plans, the Cabinet has not yet decided anything on the new plan.
The government had announced 2020 as the Visit Nepal Year with an aim of hosting 2 million tourists. But Nepal – like other countries – has gone into a nationwide lockdown, for two weeks starting March 24, to control spreading of the global pandemic that has already claimed around 40,000 lives. The lockdown has been extended until April 7 midnight.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had – on March 1 – instructed Tourism Ministry to postpone the Visit Nepal Year 2020 but the high-level committee for the control and prevention of Covid-19 – led by deputy prime minister Ishwar Pokhrel – decided to halt only the campaign until April, which has led to the confusion among tourism entrepreneurs.
Planned to revitalize tourism industry after the earthquakes of 2015, the VNY2020 campaign was supposed to re-brand tourism, apart from doubling the contribution of tourism in the economy.
Earlier, the Policy and Programmes for the fiscal year 2016-17 announced the launch of Visit Nepal Year 2018, the Tourism Ministry was forced to postpone the 2018 campaign to 2020 due to the slow pace of road and airport upgradation, apart from reconstruction of historical monuments and cultural heritage sites damaged by the devastating earthquake.
Though, a new strain of coronavirus was detected in Wuhan of China, one of the major source countries for Nepal’s tourism, late December, the first case of the virus was reported in Nepal in January. The case was declared recovered.

As Covid-19 spreads, fears rise for people at higher risk in South Asia

As cases of Covid-19 escalate in South Asia, one of the world’s poorest and most populous regions, Amnesty International (AI) calls on the authorities there to put human rights at the heart of their responses and intensify efforts to protect marginalised and vulnerable groups at higher risk, including daily wage earners, people displaced by conflict, health workers and prisoners.
The Covid-19 pandemic is poised to break into thousands of cases in South Asia as more governments across the region this week imposed strict lockdowns and curfews amid fears the virus will strike densely populated areas, overwhelming woefully inadequate healthcare facilities and devastating livelihoods across a region where more than 600 million people already live in poverty, reads a press note issued by the AI.
“As the number of Covid-19 cases in South Asia soars, the region’s leaders must pay special attention to the most vulnerable and marginalised in this crisis,” South Asia Director at Amnesty International Biraj Patnaik said, adding that they need to protect the workers for whom staying at home means losing their livelihoods, people who lost their homes in conflicts and now languish in overcrowded camps, prisoners squeezed into cells with several others, and, not least, the valiant doctors and nurses who have never had the resources they need and are now putting their own health at risk to save others.
The Covid-19 crisis in South Asia has been exacerbated by a failure of the authorities in South Asia to provide accessible, accurate and evidence-based information about the virus, how people can protect themselves, and what the government is doing to help them.
Some senior government officials in different countries in the region have, in recent weeks, either played down the crisis, suppressed information about its true scale, or, in the most damaging cases, provided false information about the effect it has – undermining the effectiveness of any public health response and potentially their right to health.
People living in rural areas, where literacy rates are low and access to health care severely limited, are particularly affected by a lack of reliable information about Covid-19.
“States have a responsibility to provide information about COVID-19 that is accurate and evidence-based, that reaches people in languages they understand through mediums they can easily access,” Patnaik said, adding, “At the same time, there must be a concerted effort to counter misinformation about the virus that could harm people and to protect marginalised communities from stigmatization.”
Authorities across South Asia have a responsibility towards not just their own citizens, but all individuals within their jurisdictions – including refugees and asylum-seekers.
South Asia has one of the highest populations of refugees in the world, including three million registered and unregistered Afghan refugees in Pakistan and more than a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
“For people displaced by conflict, social distancing is not an option, health care is not easily available, and basic necessities are a daily struggle,” he said, adding that states have an obligation to not just ensure they are included in the response to the Covid-19 crisis but to address their particular needs.
The vast majority of workers in South Asia earn their living in the informal economy, often depending on daily wages. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the informal sector ‘accounts for 80 per cent of total employment’ in South Asia.
They include street vendors, sanitation workers, drivers, construction workers, cleaners, tea plantation workers, fisherfolk, porters, cooks, and domestic workers, many of whom are internal migrant workers and live far away from their families.
As lockdowns come into force, they will overwhelmingly be denied their means of earning a livelihood. In an economically low-income region with limited social security systems in place, they do not have an adequate – or, in many cases, any – social safety net to fall back on. In Sri Lanka last week, as a curfew was being imposed, queues formed outside pawn shops, highlighting the dire circumstances already hitting people.
Some countries in South Asia, including India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, this week announced economic stimulus packages, but these have been chiefly targeted at industries. There is a need for specific measures aimed at people working in the informal sector in line with the right to social security so that they can realize their right to an adequate standard of living.
“No one should be forced to make the pernicious choice between starvation and infection. South Asia’s economies depend on the daily toil of workers who are forced to seek their living in insecure and often inadequate working conditions,” Patnaik said, adding that states must protect their livelihoods as best as they can during this crisis. “In the long term, international solidarity will be needed for a recovery and it is a global pandemic and it needs a global solution.”
Every one of South Asia’s eight countries has one of the lowest numbers of physicians per capita, according to the World Bank. It ranges from 0.3 physicians per 1,000 people (Afghanistan) to just one physician per 1,000 people (Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). At the best of times, there are too few healthcare workers with too few resources.
Health workers in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan are already raising concerns about the lack of personal protective equipment available to them as they treat patients infected with Covid-19.
South Asia’s prisons are notoriously overcrowded. In Bangladesh, there are more than twice as many prisoners as there is capacity. More than 70 per cent of the country’s prison population is still awaiting trial. In Nepal, the occupancy rate is more than 150 per cent, with more than three times as many prisoners as there is capacity in some prisons.
Prisoners are also often subject to inhumane conditions, including poor ventilation and sanitation that put their health at risk. Earlier this year, a Pakistani judicial inquiry commission highlighted the limited access to health care in prisons, reporting that 1,823 inmates are suffering from Hepatitis, 425 from HIV, and 173 from tuberculosis – all contracted in prison.
In Sri Lanka, two prisoners were killed, and others injured, by prison guards last week when protests related to Covid-19 flared at Anuradhapura prison. Pakistan this week reported its first positive case of Covid-19 in a prison at Camp Jail Lahore, where there are nearly three times as many prisoners as capacity – the majority of them still awaiting trial.
Under international human rights law and standards, the authorities must ensure prisoners have prompt access to medical care and enjoy the same standards that are available in the community, including when it comes to testing, prevention and treatment of people infected with Covid-19.
Some of South Asia’s countries have taken welcome steps towards the release of some prisoners, including India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, but these are yet to be implemented or applied consistently.
“South Asia’s prisons are a blight on the region’s conscience,” Patnaik said, adding that they are notoriously overcrowded, violent, unsanitary and lacking health care, which place inmates at high risk of infection. “Efforts should be made to urgently reduce overcrowding, including by considering release for older detainees and those who may qualify for early parole and who no longer pose a threat to public safety.”