Day: April 18, 2024

The Janaki Literary Award for the year 2080 is to be given to writer Thakur Sharma Bhandari of Gulmi. Born on Bhadau 25, 2010 BS in Johang Khaireni of Satyabati Rural Municipality of Gulmi, Bhandari is a popular critic, poet and essayist. He has 28 creations to his credit. The award is presented by the Janaki Foundation, established in memory of literati and human rights worker Janaki Gyawali, a resident of Baletaksar in Rurukshetra rural municipality. After she passed away nine years ago at the age of 39, her husband Shankar Prasad Gautam established the foundation along with revolving fund of Rs 151,151 at Kiran Library Tamghas, Gulmi. Prior to this, literati Surya Bahadur Sen, Bhagarithi Shrestha, Ram Prasad Pant, Narad Gautam and Rudra Gyawali were honoured with the award. Source: National News Agency Nepal

Chief of Sudurpaschim Province, Najir Minya, administered the oath of office and secrecy to newly appointed Chief Minister Dirgha Bahadur Shodari on Thursday evening. Sodari was administered the oath of office and secrecy as per Article 172 of Constitution. He is the parliamentary party leader of CPN (Unified Socialist). Source: National News Agency Nepal

Minister for Women, Children, and Senior Citizens, Bhagbati Chaudhary, has directed the stakeholders concerned to take all possible measures to reduce street children. She made such instruction in a meeting of the Lalitpur-based National Child Rights Council on Thursday. The Minister urged all the authorities concerned to launch a campaign to keep streets free from neglected children. She insisted on the coordination among all 753 local levels to implement the proposed campaign, making it successful. The Minister also wanted the respective employees to keep records about the status of child homes. Source: National News Agency Nepal

Kathmandu: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs, Rabi Lamichhane, has pledged an impartial investigation regarding the murder of Ramhari Shrestha. Ramhari's spouse Ramila on Thursday called on the Minister to seek justice in the case. She demanded the government to ensure maximum action against culprits in the murder. In response, the Home Minister assured of justice to the victim through impartial and flawless investigation. As he said, whichever parties remain in the government leadership, it will not influence the investigation procedures. During the meeting, Ramila expressed her concern over the 'increasing security threat' for her. As she said she is hopeful of justice with the arrest of Kali Bahadur Kham, the accused one in the case, after 16 years. Source: National News Agency Nepal

Kathmandu: Joint secretaries Kedarnath Sharma and Baikuntha Bahadur Adhikari have been promoted to gazetted special class. The Cabinet meeting held at Singha Durbar took this decision today, according to government spokesperson and Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma. Similarly, the government appointed Murari Prasad Kharel as Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Source: National News Agency Nepal

Kathmandu: Gold items weighing over 1-kg has been found unattended at Tribhuvan University Airport (TIA). The yellow metal weighing 1.07-kg was found abandoned beneath seats 27 and 28 on Air Indio Flight 6E1151 which arrived at 11:00 am Wednesday from New Delhi and remained at the airport's parking zone. According to TIA Security Office's senior superintendent of police, Krishna Hari Sharma, three gold chains, six biscuits, two triangular-shaped yellow objects deemed gold, and two chain-rings were left at TIA. Source: National News Agency Nepal

Kathmandu: The CPN (Unified Socialist) has called its central committee meeting in Kathmandu on coming May 10-11. Party's ideological perspectives will be discussed in the central committee meeting. Unified Socialist's general secretary Ghanashyam Bhusal shared that the agendas, including work progress of people-based organizations, contemporary political status and endorsement of renewed organized members will be discussed in the meeting. The meeting will also allocate responsibilities among the leaders in necessary areas striking provincial, regional and geographical balance abnd set standards in the selection of delegates for the upcoming national convention of the party. In the meeting, party chair Madhav Kumar Nepal will present contemporary political report and general-secretary Bhusal will present organizational report. The party has already decided to hold its national general convention in Kathmandu from coming June 30 to July 4. Source: National News Agency Nepal

Kathmandu: The Election Commission (EC) has sought cooperation from government and other stakeholders to hold by-election in a free, fair and credible manner. The by-election is scheduled for April 27. The EC urged government to help create atmosphere conducive for security persons and employees. Proper management of electricity, drinking water, transport and health services, and communications should be put in place. EC Spokesperson Shaligram Paudel issued a press release, informing that it was writing to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers for necessary direction to all concerned to this end. The by-election is being held on April 27 for Province Assembly member from constituency no 1 in Bajhang and for House of Representatives member from constituency no 2 of Ilam district. Source: National News Agency Nepal

Chief Minister of Madhes Province, Saroj Kumar Yadav, expanded Cabinet on Thursday. After securing vote of confidence for fourth time as CM, Yadav inducted four members in the Cabinet. The newly appointed ministers are- Bharat Prasad Saha, Minister without portfolio; Yubraj Bhattarai, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism; and Bechi Lungeli, Minister without portfolio. Similarly, Sharada Thapa has been appointed Minister of State for Communications and Law Ministry. Shah and Bhattarai are from CPN (Maoist Centre), Lungeli from CPN (Unified Socialist), and Thapa from CPN UML Province Chief Sumitra Subedi administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly appointed ministers. Source: National News Agency Nepal

Dirgha Bahadur Sodari of CPN (Unified Socialist) has been appointed the Chief Minister of Sudurpaschim Province. Province Chief Najir Miya appointed Sodari on the post on Thursday in accordance with Article 168 (2) of the Constitution. Sodari is the parliamentary party leader of the CPN (US) in the Sudurpashim Province Assembly (PA). He secured the support of CPN (Maoist Centre), CPN (UML), Nagarik Unmukti Party (not all but those believed to be in the camp of party Chair Ranjita Shrestha Chaudhary) and independent PA member Dr Tara Joshi to be eligible for the appointment to the CM post. Sodari had presented his claim for the appointment to the post on Thursday itself. On April 5, the Province Chief had called on political parties to stake their claim for the Chief Minister post by giving a time of ten days. Laxman Kishor Chaudhary and Kailash Chaudhary of the Nagarik Unmukti on April 14 presented their claims, seeking the appointment as the Chief Minister. Finding both claims unconvincing, the Province Chief on April 16 made a fresh call on political parties to approach him constitutionally for the appointment of the Chief Minister till Thursday (April 18). The division with the Nagarik Unmutki in the Province Assembly turned decisive in the formation of a new government under the leadership of the Unified Socialist having four members in the 53-member PA. However, the party's PA member Ghanashyam Chaudhary who is said to be close to Resham Chaudhary faction met with the Province Chief on Thursday itself to express concern over the claim presented by Sodari. As Chaudhary told the Province Chief, the party had officially no support the CPN (US) for the Chief Minister. The intra-party conflict in the Nagariki Unmukti, the fourth largest party in the Sudurpashsim, shows no sign of normalcy. The Ranjita Shrestha faction is for following the suit of the central alliance while those close to the party founder Resham Lal Chaudhary are inclined towards siding with the Nepali Congress. In the 53-member PA, the NC is the largest one with 18 members followed by 10 of CPN (Maoist Centre) except the Speaker, seven of Nagarik Unmukti, four of Unified Socialist, one of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and one independent. The by-election for the vacant post (Bajhang-A) is taking place on coming April 27. The support of 27 PA members is mandated to be eligible for getting appointed the Chief Minister. Source: National News Agency Nepal

Kathmandu: Leveraging modern technology has been essential for game-changers so that they can seek solutions to various social problems. Artificial intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly at the front to benefit the social innovators. But breaking barriers is equally important for their capacity to deploy AI for social benefits. It is what a recent landscape report- 'AI for Impact: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Social Innovation' underlined. Despite having huge potential of AI in social innovation, the data bias and privacy are pressing concerns that determine its success as per the report released jointly by World Economic Forum and Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in collaboration with EY and Microsoft. The report prepared with massive dataset of 300 social innovators from over 50 countries of six regions and 90 initiatives surrounding AI ecosystem and social innovation stated that 25 percent of social innovators are using AI to enhance access to health, while with 20 percent of social in novators apply AI to cope with climate solutions. It has pointed out inadequate assistance for social innovation and local initiatives for building and applying AI for impactful solutions in the low income countries. The report has made aware the areas to which the social innovators could pay heed to ensure ethical use of AI that deters exclusion and inequalities. "The ethical use of AI, data governance and the development of inclusive technologies are critical considerations to ensure that the benefits of AI are realized without exacerbating existing inequalities or creating new forms of exclusion," it stated. The data sets have showed that Asia is second in social innovators (20%) while the North America the first (29%). Asia is trailed by Africa (18%) which is followed by Europe (16%). After Europe, it is Latin America (11%) and finally Oceania (6%). Moreover, the most applied AI capability by the social innovators is machine learning (53.3%). Machine learning is trailed by predictive learning (8.3%) i n a huge margin. Chatbot accounts 3.3%. Some of the barriers for adopting AI for social innovation as explained the paper are- trust gap and systemic bias, technical complexity and skills gap, resource intensity, data quality, in/access to AI technology and insufficient collaboration at multiple levels. Source: National News Agency Nepal

Kathmandu: Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma, has highlighted the role of telecommunications service in the prosperity of the nation. Inaugurating the fifth central convention of the National Employees Organisation of Nepal (NEON), Nepal Telecom here Thursday, the Minister said the holistic development could not be imagined in the absence of telecommunications service. The nation's development gains pace with citizen's wider access to telecommunications, Minister Sharma reiterated. As the Government spokesperson asserted, the NT is responsible for connecting citizens in far-flung areas to quality services. She urged the NT management to introduce and implement a special scheme aiming at minimizing a 'digital divide'. According to her, time has come to bridge 'digital divide'. She pledged to support NT's efforts to expand services widely. Drawing the attention of the NT management to take further measures to strengthen the quality service, making it more competitive and professional, she wanted the Company to come up with a scheme to promote the organization commercially as well. The Minister also advised the NT employees to fully utilize their skills and experiences in delivery, focusing on the promotion of their professional rights and the institutional development as well. At the programme, representatives of trade unions within the NT drew the management's attention towards urgency of address to sectoral challenges, implementation of new projects, and increase in facilities. Source: National News Agency Nepal