The primary objective of the program is to teach lawmaking and public policy to the Nepali youth.

Recognizing that youth constitute 52% of the Nepali voting population, the US Embassy and the Pokhara Research Center (PRC) organized the online public-policy training for 50 youth aged 20-30 from all 11 districts of Gandaki Province.

US Ambassador Randy W. Berry inaugurated the PPSP Program on September 15, 2020.

“Youth not only have the right to be included in political decision-making, but their inclusion strengthens government. Bringing Nepal’s youth to the policy drafting table ensures that Nepal’s democracy represents all of its people,” said Ambassador Berry during the inauguration ceremony.

During the 5-day program, the participants were taught about various issues, including geopolitics, federalism, diplomacy, economic policy, and good governance.

The project organized three camps in order to winnow 50 participants to a final 12 who will be serving as advisors to Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Gandaki State Assembly. The finalists will support MPs’ research policy areas, draft parliamentary inquiries, prepare for parliamentary discussions, and arrange schedules.

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The post US Embassy in Nepal Organizes Public Policy Training for Youth! appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The 27-member team has established a notebook factory at Parasahawa in Tilottama Municipality-17, Rupandehi.

This project has been executed under Annapurna Multi Easy Industries, subsidiary of Bhairahawa Commercial Investment Company Pvt Ltd., and is the company’s third venture.

Speaking on the occasion, the company Chairman Narayan Prasad Bhandari said the factory will start producing notebooks very soon, and is planning to donate the first lot to the orphanage children as under Corporate Social Responsibility.

The plant holds capacity to produce 10,000 notebooks per day, and the factory has already set up manufacturing units for packaging carton and cardboard.

With the new factory, the company now owns 3 manufacturing units with 100 employees.

Inaugurating the new factory, Province 5 Education and Industry Minister Lila Giri stressed on the significance of small-scale manufacturing industries as a strong foundation to build larger industries and curtail rising imports.

The promoters of the company are planning to establish 10 factories in the next ten years taking the employee strength to 1,000 persons.

The group has already invested NPR 280 million with a target to raise NPR 1 billion investment.

Hope the new initiative will encourage and pave a way for more Nepali entrepreneurs!

The post Nepali Entrepreneur Team Sets Up NPR 150 Mn Worth Factory appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The Kathmandu Youth Conclave 2019 honored Khadka with the ‘Youth Icon 2019’ award at a special program in Kathmandu on March 19, 2019.

Paras Khadka also received a cash prize of NPR 100,000.

The program featured speeches by successful personalities of Nepal in various fields and their address to future students.

Khadka was recognized for his contribution to the Nepali cricket and also for being an inspiration to Nepali youth.

Miss Nepal 2018 Shrinkhala Khatiwada was also another special attraction to the event. She spoke on prosperity through tourism.

IT Consultant to Prime Minister of Nepal Asgar Ali, who spoke on the future of e-commerce and IT, Actor Sandip Chhetri were among key highlights of the event.

The program also presented musical performances by students from different Nepali colleges, besides food stalls, game zones and other special events.

More than 3000 students attended this program that was focused on promoting leadership, management and industrial skills.

Also Read:

• Nepal Cricket Awards: Sandeep Lamichhane Named ‘Male Cricketer of the Year’!

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Looking at the latest figures, the Himalayan nation registered 7,144 suicides in the previous year with 57 percent of victims being youth.

Nepal Police revealed these alarming figures on March 14, 2019 based on its data compiled from 7 provinces.

According to the department, the number of suicide cases is almost double the number of crimes registered under drug crimes and four times higher than those related to rape, during the said period.

As per the records, the country witnessed a total of 3,939 crimes related to drugs and 2,281 rape cases were registered during 2017-18 and 2018-19.

Going deep into numbers, more than 4500 suicide cases were reported among youth in the age group of 16-25 and 26-35 years, and around 2500 suicides among other groups.

On an average, around 14 people are committing suicide per day!

Even the WHO says that suicide is the second leading cause of death next to road accidents.

What Psychologists Say?

Psychologists feel that suicides are the result of lack of mental health awareness and stigma.

According to Dr. Umanga Jung Parakram Shah, Director at Nepal Academy of Psychology, the rate of suicides is higher among the aforementioned age groups owing to the transformations they undergo in that age- physically, emotionally and socially.

This can be due at study, job, facing competition, marriage or failure in achieving ambitions, among others. “These changes sometimes make youths more stressful and apprehensive,” says Shah.

“Not everyone is able to cope up with the source or resolve their concerns by sharing. That population is at a greater risk,” Shah adds.

According to Karuna Kunwar, Psychologist at the Center for Mental Health and Counseling, overthinking is also one reason for mental illness threatening life.

They feel that mental health is going to be the next big challenge for the society!

WHO on Suicides

WHO statistics show that around 800,000 people and one person in every 40 seconds are losing life through suicide, every year.

Mental health conditions are causing some USD 2.5 trillion a year to the world at the current scenario and is expected to grow two-fold to USD 6 trillion by 2030 if not addressed.

“Unlike the West, we do not share our problems or our concerns. Neither are we expressive when we have the opportunity,” Kunwar adds.

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Since a week period, Nepal’s social media and its fans have been busy on the mission of cleanliness.

The world-wide viral activity titled #Trashtag challenge has been drawing huge attention from the Nepali audience, especially the youth in social media with the sole agenda of ‘Clean Nepal’.

This viral post includes two photos, one with an open space full of trash and the other of the same space cleaned up completely!

The #Trashtag Challenge in Nepal!

#Trashtag in Nepal began with KP Khanal, a social worker and activist, sharing his story of a ‘clean-up drive’ conducted at the New Bus Park in Gongabu with five of his friends!

Khanal tagged his social media post under #trashtag!

Khanal’s post grabbed the attention of a popular Nepali Facebook page ‘Routine of Nepal Banda’ on March 10, 2019. And, that’s when the #trashtag challenge took a different turn drawing more than 19,000 likes and 300+ shares from the page.

Then it went on viral among other groups and pages to finally becoming viral among Nepali youth!

“We started the clean-up at night so as not to disturb people’s movement and because it’s a very busy place, we were unable to take the ‘before’ picture. But I am happy that many youths from across the country have taken on the challenge,” said 19-year-old Khanal, who is pursuing Bachelor’s in Social Work at Texas International College in Mitrapark.

“This is a great initiative. We have been requesting people not to throw trash here, even fining them Rs 1,000, but it hasn’t worked,” says Puspa Kumari Mishra, an Army ranger.

Another group of MBBS students from Bhaktapur also participated in the challenge on March 13, 2019.

“We have conducted numerous such cleaning campaigns but we were not able to get more youth involved. But when we did it as part of the #trashtag challenge, many young people have shown interest,” said Nabin Bhandari, one of the challenge campaigners.

Bishu Tamang, a city tour guide, called on all the Nepali youth to take up this activity with motivation.

“We have long been blaming government authorities, but we do not take initiative for change,” he said. “This challenge is motivating youths because they are cleaning up and are appreciated publicly,” Tamang said in a statement.

Not the First Time!

This is not the first time that Nepal has adopted such trend!

The #FillTheBucket challenge was one in the same line that Nepalis actively took part in 2014 by collecting a bucketful of essentials in support of flood and landslide victims in West Nepal.

The #trashtag challenge has been around since 2015 but went on to become viral months ago after a user post on Redditt that displayed a clean-up picture!

The post #Trashtag Challenge Goes viral in Nepal, Calls for Clean-up Drive! appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

Nepal Youth and Sports Minister Jagat Bahadur Bishwakarma laid the foundation for a 18,500-capacitive multi-purpose stadium in Pokhara on March 10, 2019.

The construction of the stadium began two months back and is expected to be completed on time before the commencement of South Asian Games (SAG) 2019. #SAG2019

“We have the responsibility to host South Asian Games (SAG), which is a matter of our national prestige. I am sure that construction will be completed on time,” says the Minister.

Bishwakarma further informed that the stadium is being constructed with the state-of-the-art facilities and would help in promoting Pokhara for ‘sports tourism’ in Nepal.

“We need to make sure that the master plan meets latest standards. Even if it takes 10-15 years to complete, the stadium needs to meet all the requirements of the international arena,” says National Sports Council Keshav Kumar Bista.

Bista confirmed that the football ground construction will be completed within the set deadlines to host SAG 2019.

“The stadium with 18,500 seats will be Nepal’s biggest and most advanced sports facility. It can be expanded to 30,000 seats in future,” Bista adds.

To facilitate SAG 2019, special sports halls for Archery and lawn tennis courts are also being constructed. However, the construction of cricket ground, tracks, hall for Martial Arts, swimming pool and other facilities are yet to begin.

For the first time in Nepal’s history, the construction authority is using steel modular system for building the new stadium and is importing material from France and Germany.

“Every association and council should help on their parts to complete this project, which will help establish Pokhara and the entire Gandaki province as a center of sports tourism in future. Sports lovers should press concerned officials for timely completion of the project,” read an official statement.

Multi-purpose hall is being constructed at an investment of NPR 150 million, Archery Arena with NPR 20 million, Tennis hard court, clay court and changing room along with parapet with NPR 25 million, Badminton-covered hall with NPR Rs 35 million, Volleyball training area with NPR 12.5 million and a Handball ground with Rs 1 million investment.

The stadium is being built at a total cost of NPR 1.3 billion.

Follow Us for more such interesting Nepal sports breaking news!

Also Read

• International Cricket Stadium Coming Up At Bharatpur City!
• Nepal — A Growing Cricket Nation
• Sandeep Lamichhane – Pride of Nepal’s New-Age Cricket

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UNDP Nepal and Clean Energy Nepal are supporting the event.

The key objective of the event is to enhance youth understanding on climate change aspects alongside promoting for adaptation and mitigation measures among Nepali youth.

NYCA Network Coordinator Sanju Shrestha said that the conference aims to bring together diverse youth groups from across the country and magnify their Knowledge on Climate Change.

“Participation of youth will lead to active discussion in these issues in context of Nepal and be sensitized about responsibilities of youths for Climate Action,” says Shrestha.

The conference aims to adopt new federal structure to build the working Chapter of NYCA across all provinces.

This conference gains significance in view of the recently-concluded COP24 where Nepal presented its plan to address climate change concerns.

About NYCA
Nepalese Youth for Climate Action-NYCA has so far successfully organized five NYCCCs during 2008-2017.

Being instrumental in bringing together youth onto a single platform, these conferences directly benefited 400 aspiring youths till date.

Besides, such conferences have also been successful in mobilizing youth to form NYCA chapters in their respective districts.

The post Nepal’s 6th National Youth Conference on Climate Change Soon! appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

Because of the boom in banking and other related sectors, majority of Nepali students are shifting their focus towards management courses away from regular educational courses.

According to Nepal UGC, management courses comprise of around 1.5 lakh applications out of the total 3.6 lakh enrolments at the university level in the country.

Master’s in Business Studies and MBA are among the top career preferences at the master’s level, currently.

Although renowned varsities like Tribhuvan University had courses like M.Com since 1960s, MBA degree courses that came later somewhere in around 1993 are gaining more attention.

Kathmandu University introduced MBA degree course in 1993, following which, demand for the course increased pushing many other colleges to introduce in their curriculum.

And, many investors have been keen about offering such courses in affiliation with foreign universities, along with local universities.

While there are around 37 colleges in total offering the MBA degree, 16 stand affiliated to foreign universities in USA, UK, India and Malaysia.

Human Resource, A Serious Concern
College managers argue that the increasing inclination among students towards MBA degree is encouraging, but proper availability of human resource is compulsory to ensure quality education.

According to them, colleges should be granted licenses based on their human resource availability.

“One should be very clear, along with knowledge a MBA student must have problem-solving skill once s/he graduates. I regret to say not all colleges fulfil this standard,” says Tribhuvan University Management Dean Dilli Ram Sharma.

Sharma, based on his inspection, says that many colleges lack full-time faculty making it difficult for after-class consultation. “This does not mean there aren’t excellent colleges here. Many colleges are truly doing well,” adds Sharma.

Another major issue is the enrolment of fresher/inexperienced students for the course and lack of internship programs for students.

Meanwhile, South Asian Institute of Management Principal Ashok Raj Pandey feels that the entire education system in Nepal is currently examination-focused.

While MBA students pursue hundreds of cases during their course in universities like Harvard, MBA students in Nepal complete their course without studying at least some dozen courses, resulting in degree lacking required skill-set.

Lack of Academia-Industry Collaboration
This is another serious problem in Nepali education structure.

College managements report that the academia has failed to establish proper linking with the country’s leading industry bodies such as Federation of Nepali Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), Confederation of Nepali Industries (CNI) and Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC), among others.

“The production of graduates should be based on the need of the market, but we have failed to internalize this crucial fact,” admits Pankaj Jalan, Chairman of Lord Buddha Education Foundation.

So, the government has to approve academic institutions based on their human resource requirements.

Following recommendations from various institutions, the Ministry of Education has already formed a panel in coordination with the National Planning Commission (NPC) to fill human resource gaps in various sectors, Jalan informed.

The panel is currently studying various aspects of the matter and is expected to come up with the number of human resource requirements that the country needs in different fields over the next 25 years.

Factors to be analyzed part of the study include current situation of human resources, number of graduates in different sectors and employment prospects, among others.

Hope the study will fill the gaps in the country’s education sector and pave ways for quality education and sufficient opportunities.

The post Management Courses on Demand in Nepal, Human Resources Lacking appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

Given this fact, the country has always been open for wide range of opportunities, investment and proposals from foreign nations. All is to ensure better livelihood and career opportunities for its young citizens!

This wish of the Himalayan Nation is growing in size with the reported rise in number of its youngsters leaving the country for career opportunities abroad.

See:

• Nepal, Fifth Largest Foreign Community to Receive US H-1B Visa
• Nepali Students Across Foreign Varsities on Rise
• Nepali Youth Migration for Foreign Employment on Rise

Now, local development and generating employment locally remain to be two key agendas of the Nepal Government to provide an alternative to the rising number of migrants leaving for foreign destinations.

Towards this end, the government has already announced plans for local skill development and employment laws in a move to ensure more opportunities for Nepali citizens, especially youth.

Besides, Nepal as a fast-developing country, also presents scope for enormous employment opportunities across its various sectors including government and private sectors undergoing fast-paced development.

Some of the key high-potential public sector areas offering larger scope for youth employment and career opportunities in Nepal, through their ongoing development, in the current scenario include:

• Hydropower
• Transport Infrastructure
• Civil Infrastructure
• Agriculture
• Industrial Sector
• Logistics & Services
• Public Policy
• Digital Governance
• Local-level groups such as District Health Groups, Community Welfare Centers, etc.,
• Think-tanks and various other local, provincial and central government departments

Aforementioned are some areas undergoing fast-paced development with both government and private sector participation.

Coming to other side of the Nepali society, there are also fast-paced private career opportunities stemming up across the country. Some of the encouraging trends showcasing high employment scope for Nepali youth in other areas, other than public sector, include:

• Start-up Culture & SME Growth
• Entrepreneurship
• Rise of Dynamic Enterprises
• Rise in technology adoption and increasing IT firms
• Openness to pursue new talents
• Increasing business investment in new and existing ventures (as part of expansion)
• Changing societal trends and thinking patterns
• Rising remittance flows

As the reports say, there is a high rate of demand for government jobs among youth from provinces. According to the Public Service Commission (PSC), job applicants to the department has increased almost six-fold in a decade period. The Department’s 59^th Annual Report puts Province 2 on the top of other provinces for such jobs.

Besides aforementioned opportunities that come as official notifications or via mouth talk, there might also be some good opportunities that can go unnoticed. As a solution to this, a good number of job portals in Nepal are operating on a regular basis looking every nook and corner of the country to keep the citizens informed about every new job opportunity along with offering them career counselling solutions.

Here are some of the top job portal and career counselling portals:

• Merojob
• Jobs Nepal
• RamroJob
• Kantipur Job
• Mero Rojgari
• Kumari Jobs

What World Bank Says?
In its report titled ‘Jobless Growth?’, the World Bank reports that Nepal needs to create more jobs to meet the employment needs of the gradually-growing working age population. “Every month, the working age population increases by 35,000 people and Nepal must create 286,900 jobs a year to maintain its employment rate,” reads WB report.

“Providing opportunities to these young entrants while attracting more women into the labor market will require generating even more jobs for every point of economic growth,” says Martin Rama, World Bank South Asia Region Chief Economist.

Government Efforts Underway!
Nepal Government has been making its efforts to address the situation in multiple ways.

Event the Budget FY 2018-19 has also dwelled more on creating sufficient job opportunities locally. Skill development is one step in the process that the Ministry of Labor has already announced as a measure to retain more local talents from going abroad to most-sought destinations such as Malaysia, Singapore, UAE, Australia, etc.

It’s alarming that around 512,000 youth leave the local market for foreign job opportunities, annually!

According to International Labor Organization, 63.7 percent of Nepal’s overall population are aged below 30 years and 19.2 percent of the youth in the age group of 15-29 years are facing unemployment.

Hope the ongoing developing and upcoming projects would provide needed scope for Nepali youth to earn their livelihood, locally, thus contributing to the homeland development.

The post Job Opportunities in Nepal: A Glance at Potential Sectors, Scope! appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

Jazzmandu 2018 is going to mark the annual music festival’s 22 years of successful journey since its first edition in 2002.

The festival, usually celebrated in the Biggest Festival Season of Nepal, is coming again to woo Nepali audience amidst Dashain and Tihar celebrations for the year 2018.

Jazzmandu 2018 Highlights

Nepali art and music lovers are eagerly waiting for the arrival of this famous Nepali music festival scheduled to be held during November 1-6, 2018.

Jazzmandu is usually a mix of local and international talents.

This year, Jazzmandu is welcoming six international bands to perform in the festival in various venues across Kathmandu during the scheduled period.

These foreign music bands include DACH, Nick’s Cousins, Groove Gang, Adrien Brandeis Quintet, Eduardo Mendonca and Cynthia Abraham.

Besides, there will also be Nepali bands including Cadenza (the festival organizer), Abhishek & Maria (who teach and perform jazz in Nepal), Project Sarangi that aims to safeguard and revive traditional Nepali music and Rabin Lal Shrestha duo with a melodious Eastern Classical.

The Voice of Jazzmandu

Nepalis are fond of jazz because of its interactive approach in bringing the jazz-style music closer to Nepalis.

Jazzmandu presents different elements of music from traditional and non-traditional background including folk and instruments to melodies.

It stands out unique among other music festivals, majorly because it infuses new trends and styles in music into the local jazz scene, in its 2018 rendition.

“Jazz is popular because it revels in improvisation, it sounds different in each place. In jazz, there are no rules and there is much improvisation. It is more like a conversation,” says Samir Chhetri, one of the festival organizers and member of Nepal’s first jazz band, The Cadenza.

The journey of jazz music in Nepal has been successful as evident in its track record from having a handful of jazz musicians 16 years ago to today’s continuously-growing number of youngsters queuing to learn jazz at the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory.

Long Live Jazz in Nepal!

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