In a recent announcement, Anupama has been named as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Mega Bank Nepal as a replacement to the former CEO Anil Shah as per the Nepal Rastra Bank’s regulation.

Anupama’s appointment to the top post in one of the class A banks of Nepal is being seen as the landmark announcement and also as an inspiration to Nepali women community looking for careers in the banking sector.

“I will put all my efforts into safeguarding the interests of stakeholders, promoters and customers of the bank while ensuring compliance with the regulations of the central bank and government bodies to benefit society at large,” Anupama said in a statement.

Speaking on her appointment, Anupama pitches on the need for encouraging more women to pursue careers in the banking sector.

Strong Commitment

Anupama’s appointment is coming at a time when the Nepali banking sector is facing challenges in offering services to the rural and remote areas of the country.

To start with, Anupama considers this as her top priority post assuming office.

“As the CEO of Mega Bank, my first priority would be to bring unbanked rural people into the banking network,” says Anupama.

Speaking further on challenges in the Nepali banking sector, she informed that Nepali central bank’s regulation seeking rise in paid-up capital of banks resulted in rise of interest rates, which resulted in bankers increase their business to meet the demands. Lack of loanable funds moved Nepali banks to raise interest rates to meet the demand.

“If the central bank’s policy to reduce the number of commercial banks through mergers had been successful, such a severe problem might not have arisen,” says Anupama.

Speaking further on the country’s financial progress, Anupama opined that the Government of Nepal should ramp up its investment in productive sectors as a step towards strengthening the country’s financial sector.

“There should be a clarity in the government’s policy regarding productive sectors. In addition, there is a need to introduce more derivative products to boost the financial market,” she adds.

Overall, she says, “We have to accept the ups and downs in the business cycle and move accordingly to deal with the challenges.”

A Story of Hard Work!

Having been associated with the banking sector for more than three decades serving in key positions, Anupama cites hard work and opportunity as keys to success.

Anupama adds that it’s the years of experience that gave her enough strength to overcome the current challenges.

Having completed her schooling at St Mary’s School, Khunjeli moved to India for further studies.

On her return home, she pursued her bachelor’s degree in management from the Shankar Dev Campus and further got her Master’s in Business Administration from the Ace Institute of Management.

Anupama began her employment career in the banking sector at the age of 27, starting with ANZ Grindlays Bank Nepal that was later acquired by Standard Chartered Bank Nepal.

After gaining a decade of experience in her first job, she moved on to Nabil Bank from where, she joined Mega Bank at the time of its establishment and continued further to what she is today.

“I praise the bank board for taking the right decision to promote Khunjeli to the post of CEO. As she has been with the bank since its establishment, she has a thorough knowledge of the bank’s legacy, promoters, customers and other stakeholders,” says the Mega Bank’s former CEO Shah.

Now that the Nepali banking sector is transforming itself as an attractive destination for employment careers, Anupama’s appointment comes as a needed boost to the Nepali women bankers looking for careers in the banking sector.

Nepal welcomes the first woman CEO of the country’s commercial bank! All the best Anupama Khunjeli!

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Here are some of the major sports, entertainment and other highlights:

Sports and Entertainment

This year, Nepal proved its mark across various renowned national and global-level sports competitions such as ACC U-16 Cricket Championship Eastern Region, World Martial Peace Cup 2017, EPL Twenty20 Cricket, International Wheelchair Twenty20 Cricket, International Wheelchair Basketball, ACC U-19 Cricket Youth Asia Cup 2017, World Powerlifting Championship, International Taekwondo Championship, World Junior Judo Championship, ICC World Cricket League Championship, to name a few.

Continuing the pace, Nepal has already announced its team for 2018 Street Child World Cup, the International Football Tournament.

Nepal has also left its mark in the global beauty pageants through its contestants: Miss World 2017, Miss World 2017, Teen Nepal 2017 Pageant, Miss Deaf Asia 2017, among others.

Nepali film industry drew a special recognition in the New York Nepali Film Festival by winning three awards for its indigenous film Lomba.

Nepali Film Director Deepak Rauniyar achieved global recognition for his films Highway and White Sun, and The New York Times named him among ‘The 9 New Directors You Need to Watch’.

Kutu ma Kutu, a Nepali song from a Nepali movie Dui Rupaiyan, has also registered a new record on YouTube with over 10 million views within just 49 days of its release. This was a rare feat a Nepali music video has ever achieved till then.

A renowned Nepali music band Nepathya also completed its 25 years of musical journey in 2017.

Besides, various Nepali musicians have also embarked on foreign tours attracting huge global audience across countries such as London, among others.

Events and Conferences

Nepal also hosted many national and international level events in 2017 including: 11^th edition of the South Asian film festival called Film Southasia (FSA)- A festival of South Asian documentaries, South Asian Conference, Biggest Online Food Festival by Foodmandu, photo exhibitions, Nepal Chamber Expo 2017, Global Conference on Climate Change, 15th Handicraft Trade Fair and 13th Craft Competition of Nepal, among others.

Inspirational

Nepal has many inspiring people and stories to speak about.

                  Satya Mohan Joshi

In a major update in 2017, the Government of Nepal honored the renowned Nepali scholar and writer Satya Mohan Joshi with the ‘‘Litterateur of the Century’ title on August 23, 2017.

Meanwhile, Nepali golfer Pratima Sherpa also rose to fame in 2017 as the country’s first professional female golfer.

Pratima Sherpa (18), a girl born to a couple working in the Royal Nepal Golf Club (RNGC) course next to the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu, never thought that she would become Nepal’s top-rated female golf player.

The internationally-acclaimed Nepali surgeon and the Founder & Executive Director of the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology Dr. Sanduk Ruit’s thoughts and vision were featured in Genius, the world’s first 3D-printed book, in September 2017.

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With this, they broke the previous record, which was a tie between Nepal and New Zealand, wherein the handshake lasted for 33 hours and 3 minutes.

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Pratima Sherpa (18), a girl born to a couple working in the Royal Nepal Golf Club (RNGC) course next to the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu, never thought that she would become Nepal’s top-rated female golf player.

Sounds That Resonated

                        Pratima Sherpa with her parents

Aspiring to become Nepal’s first female professional golfer, Pratima recalls her rejoicing moments in her early days where she used to feel refreshed listening to the sounds of golf balls hit by golfers at the club.

In fact, Pratima’s passion for golf sport stemmed out during her family’s stay at the golf course with lawnmowers as part of their employment and has moved her further to take up the sport properly from the age of 11 years.

Whereas, roots for her passion actually lies in the typical Nepali rural outdoor game Dandi Biyo, played by hitting a 6-inch long wooden pin (Biyo) into the air with a wooden stick (Dandi) and strike it again before other players catch it, which she played in her childhood.

Dandi Biyo has been Nepal’s unofficial national sport until Volleyball was declared officially on May 23, 2017.

Talent Finds Recognition

    Pratima Sherpa earns wide recognition

Pratima’s talent got due recognition from one of the coaches when she was learning the sport through juniors’ program run by the club.

The coach joined Pratima under his own wing for free and further appointed a member who introduced her to a set of old clubs.

Pratima continued her practice and eventually crossed various challenges that got her around 40 trophies, so far. But, she never relaxed and practices for at least two hours a day.

“Nepal is a smaller country than most, and playing golf can be difficult for poor families like ours. But I’ve got a big opportunity to play golf, and feel very proud and lucky that I’ve got that chance. I want to become a great golfer,” says Pratima.

From Kathmandu to Further Heights

Despite holding such a talent, Pratima had to struggle a lot for getting a passport to fly abroad to present her skill in the global arena.

Even though an American member of the club offered to adopt, Pratima never thought of leaving her parents.

Finally, with the help of her relations, she could get the passport and has recently travelled to the United States, where she stayed six weeks experiencing golf for the first time outside Nepal.

                          Pratima Sherpa (File Picture)

After being hosted by a Nepali software engineer, Pratima competed in five regional tournaments in California winning one of them and made it at top-6 in the two other matches.

A Hong Kong based sponsorship is also in offing for Pratima currently, which requires her to return to States and pursue golf classes at the California’s Santa Barbara City College.

Pratima, currently playing off a five golf handicap, loves to play for the Faldo Series China Championship, the tournament that hosted renowned Northern Ireland golfer Rory McIlroy and  Taiwanese golfer Yani Tseng.

“It’s really wonderful to see that the whole of Nepal has got excited about Pratima. They’re so proud of her and so supportive. She’s an amazing spokesperson, an amazing icon for Nepali golf and more generally for Nepal and Nepali women,” says Oliver Horovitz, a journalist, author and a golf caddy, who met Pratima at RNGC.

For the Country

Keeping aside key challenges in personal life (caring for family) and career passion, Pratima loves and finds her ability to balance both in a proper way.

In the process, she is also pursuing a four-year business studies course at Thames International College of Kathmandu.

“I can’t say how far my golf career will go. Ultimately, I want to become Nepal’s first female professional golfer,” says Pratima.

“Royal family is gone, we have a new government and there are more opportunities for women. There’s a Nepali proverb, Fruits of labor are always sweet, so now I’ve been given the opportunity to play golf I am going to try my hardest,” reads her latest statement.

Public supporters of Pratima have started www.teampratima.com to raise donations favoring Pratima’s career. This clearly shows the level of love and support Pratima has gained from Nepali society for her sincere efforts.

Pratima always wishes to give back to her nation.

“I want to develop golf in Nepal. I will give back to the Nepali golf community and will help underprivileged children enjoy the sport as I have,” she adds.

“Any competitive golfer that wants to be on the world stage is working hard. Not all of them have that joy for every single shot they hit. I thought that was a pretty striking difference from Pratima and other young players. She has an amazing opportunity to really influence a ton of kids over in Kathmandu. She’s inspiring a generation of kids over there,” says a renowned US’ Golf Coach Don Parsons.

 Golf in Nepal In Brief

Golf in Nepal took its actual form in 1917 when the then prime minister of the country introduced golf clubs following his Scotland trip and had also set up a basic course. However, the sport remained limited to the then Nepali elite families and expatriates for long until RNGC came up in 1965.

Apart from RNGC, which has 9 golf holes, Nepal has three other golf courses in the Kathmandu Valley (Gokarna Golf Course), Pokhara and Dharan.

Nepal’s golf community fear RNGC might get affected if the Government of Nepal’s supposed plans to expanding TIA are implemented.

Overall, Nepal has a total of four golf courses in contrast to hundreds of registered golf players.

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A similar strategy struck a Nepali pilot Captain Bed Prasad Upreti’s mind, who moved on to create Nepal’s first such aviation museum out of a plane that crash-landed at the country’s only international airport two years back.

Airbus 330, a Turkish Airlines plane that was carrying around 224 passengers, had skid off the runway and crash-landed at the Kathmandu Airport in March 2015.

Luckily, the crash did not harm any of the passengers on-board. But, the airport had to remain shut for almost four days till the removal of the crash-landed plane.

Eventually, the plane was parked aside at a corner of the airport where it remained exposed to open environment rusting for almost two years.

Here is where Upreti’s initiative to create the country’s largest aviation museum began.

“It is unfortunate that the aircraft had an accident and was grounded, but I saw a perfect opportunity,” says Upreti.

A Struggle Behind

Upreti’s efforts to turn the crashed plane into an aviation museum began with bringing the crashed plane 63 meter from airport across the road to the museum lot.

As a process, Upreti recalls a similar experience he had in transporting an abandoned Fokker 100, half the size of Airbus A330, 500 km to Dhangadi of Nepal’s far west to set up a museum on a smaller scale than the present one.

“Transporting that plane across districts was much easier than relocating the Airbus meters away from the airport,” adds Upreti.

He has changed the interior of the plane by removing the entire seating set up and made it spacious.

Upreti invested USD 600,000 and also acquired Rs 20 million aid in loan from the Everest Bank to build the museum.

“As per the contract, if we are unable to run the aviation museum after 10 years from now, all the parts of this museum will be sold to junkyards. I hope that won’t happen,” says Bed.

An Inspiration to Youth, A Must for Tourists

                 (Bedi Prasad Upreti)

Upreti was hopeful that the museum will be an inspiration to youngsters towards pursuing careers in pilot and engineering courses.

“Passers-by are already peeking to get a glimpse,” adds Upreti with confidence over huge public attention to the museum.

The museum-turned plane features a model of the world’s first aircraft of Wright Brothers’ in the business class section and a café in the in the tail part.

“The museum will give a chance to some Nepalis who might never fly to step into a plane,” says Shyam Rauniyar (22), an engineering student who was part of the team that prepared the model of the Wright Brother’s plane. 

Besides, the museum also features more than 150 miniature display planes that illustrate the world’s aviation history and also the story of Nepal’s flying industry.

The museum offers free entry for the students of Grade IX-XII across Nepal provided they have an official letter endorsing the visit from their schools and all the students with IDs get 50 percent off.

“It is not possible to give free tickets to all the students, but we are trying discounts. We are also encouraging students to pursue higher studies to make their career in aviation field,” says Upreti on offering free tickets to the students.

The museum also displays 86 photographs of Upreti’s journey to 80 countries so far. The captured displays include historical and cultural monuments of Nepal in an aerial view and also the underwater captures of various seas all over.

Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft with 208 feet in height and 55 feet in width.

For a Social Cause

Besides driving the youth towards careers in aviation sector, the museum planned under the Bed Upreti Trust also stands for a noble social cause.

“The Bed Upreti Trust is a non-profit organization that has already set up an aviation museum in an abandoned Fokker 100 in Dhangadi. The revenue from that project goes to assist cancer patients. The museum in Kathmandu is a sequel to the Dhangadi venture for which the Trust has partnered with the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN),” informed Upreti.

In Response to Cause for Global Aviation

         Model of crash-landed Airbus A330 aircraft

This aviation museum is part of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)’s efforts to address a severe shortage of pilots across the world.

In this regard, ICAO has started a Next-Generation Aviation Professional program and has called on its partner organizations across the globe to implement the same.

“CAAN has responded to this call by starting its own campaign to get students interested in the aviation sector in Nepal. This aviation museum is a part of that effort and a result of cooperation between CAAN and the Bed Upreti Trust,” says Birendra Prasad Shrestha, Deputy Director, CAAN.

According to a recent survey, the global aviation industry will need 350,000 new pilots and 450,000 aeronautical technicians within the next decade.

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