Tired of working a desk job that left her physically and mentally drained, Dutch citizen Hana(pictured, below) planned a trekking trip to Nepal in 2021. As soon as she reached Pokhara, all her tiredness seemed to slip away, and she felt as though her life had changed.&nbsp; “I was drawn to Pokhara’s mountains, the nature, and the climate,” says Hana who was in Nepal to do the Annapurna trek. “But once here, I discovered the healing benefits of yoga and meditation.” Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/pokhara-comes-alive-at-night">Pokhara comes alive at night</a> Hana is back in Pokhara for the third time in three years, and spends time in daily meditation and yoga. She says, “Pokhara is so peaceful and beautiful, it is the perfect yoga destination.”&nbsp; Like Hana, there are thousands of ‘meditation tourists’ visiting Pokhara during what used to be the monsoon off-season for visitors. Many yoga retreats have sprung up in and around this scenic city, and instructors advertise private meditation classes in hotels.&nbsp; One instructor is Maheswar Man Shrestha (pictured, below), who grew up as a sickly child in Kathmandu and was often hospitalised, missing school for months at a time. When modern medicine did not work, his father, himself a doctor, sought ayurvedic treatment and combined it with yoga and meditation. Shrestha soon got miraculously better. &nbsp; Read also:<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/practicing-mindfulness-in-schools"> Practicing mindfulness in schools</a>, Basu Gautam Now in his fifties, Shrestha is a true believer in the power of yogic healing. “I went from medication to meditation, I am living proof that yoga ensures physical and mental wellbeing,” says Shrestha who teaches yoga to overseas tourists at his Purna Yoga Retreat.&nbsp; Being both<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-other-abc-trek"> the start and end point for treks</a> makes Pokhara perfect for tourists to combine physically taxing Himalayan hikes with a soothing recovery. But even outside the trekking season, its lush monsoon greenery, the lakes and cloudscape make Pokhara the ideal place to decompress from the material world. “Pokhara’s proximity to nature and relatively clean environment makes it great for tourists to come here to learn yoga,” Shrestha says. Indeed, Nepal’s travel industry has lately discovered that blending <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/getting-up-close-and-personal-with-the-mountains">mountains</a> and meditation is a popular combination. After all, the Buddha was born in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/lumbini-is-not-a-buddhist-disneyland">Lumbini</a>, a seven hour drive to the south of Pokhara, and for many a trek in Nepal is already also a pilgrimage. Rishi Raj Lamsal (pictured, below) worked for a travel agency outfitting and guiding trekking groups. Once, on a hike to Poon Hill, his clients gasped at the panorama of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna at sunrise, and they promptly took out yoga mats and started doing asana and pranayam.&nbsp; It was there and then that Lamsal (pictured) realised that tourism had a spiritual aspect that Nepal’s travel industry had largely ignored. As soon as he returned to Kathmandu, he started designing meditatiton tourism packages. Lamsal also learnt yoga and has been an instructor based in Pokhara for many years, teaching not just foreign visitors but also Nepalis from all over the country.&nbsp; “I have been to 42 districts, but there is no place like Pokhara, its geography is ideal to mixing tourism with spiritualism. It is natural beauty that draws people initially, but once here they also find inner peace,” Lamsal says.&nbsp; Deepa Basnet initially took up yoga to reduce weight, but is now pursuing a degree in yoga and is also an instructor on the side. “I wanted to increase my knowledge of yoga beyond the basic asana to ayurveda,” she explains.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/yoga-unites-the-world">Yoga unites the world</a>, Yugeshwor Koirala Pokhara’s fame as a yoga city has been boosted by the Indian Embassy holding the International Day of Yoga on 21 June every year in partnership with local organisations. The city’s strategic location between sacred Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage sites of Muktinath and Lumbini also help. Ekraj Rokaya was working in Australia, and while there he began to ruminate on impermanence, suffering and human existence. He returned to Nepal a changed person, and began to practice and teach yoga and meditation, changing his name to Raj Karmayogi (pictured, below).&nbsp; Seeing the benefits of meditation, he wanted to share its value with others and set up a yoga school in Pokhara six years ago. “Pokhara is a yoga city just like Rishikesh in India, it can be associated internationally with yoga,” he believes.&nbsp; Indeed, with better road connectivity yoga centres are no longer concentrated in Pokhara city, but have been established in the surrounding mountains which command a stunning panorama of the Annapurnas. &nbsp;&nbsp; Pokhara was the venue for the International Yoga Festival in March last year with 50 overseas participants, and a four-day repeat of the festival is planned for October in which renowned instructors will be taking part.&nbsp; While individuals and instructors are promoting Pokhara on their own, they lament the lack of interest on the part of the government and the Nepal Tourism Board in marketing the city as a yoga hub internationally.&nbsp; “There is zero interest from the government to promote yoga tourism,” states Manohar Shrestha, of Purna Yoga Retreat Centre which takes tourists on hikes in the nearby mountains with yoga and meditation sessions in the mornings and evenings.&nbsp; Since India has branded the International Day of Yoga, Shrestha and Lamsal suggest Pokhara could be promoted as an International Meditation City, and the Nepal government could set aside an annual commemorative day for it, which the provincial and municipal government can then peg events on. “Nepal and the Himalaya are where the Buddha and numerous Hindu sages meditated, these mountains are the spiritual home of both religions. There is no better place to honour them by rediscovering yoga,”says Lamsal.&nbsp; But like all other sectors in Nepal, there is a lack of regulation, and fly-by-night yoga retreat operators are giving the city a bad reputation. It is not only Nepalis involved, foreign trainers also bring clients and take private classes without paying taxes, local retreat owners say. Only certified instructors should be allowed to train and proper protocols should be in place for yoga tourism, they add.&nbsp; Krishna Prasad Bhandari of the Pokhara Tourism Council adds: “Yoga and meditation must be developed such that it becomes synonymous with Pokhara, but we should not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs in the process.” &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Tired of working a desk job that left her physically and mentally drained, Dutch citizen Hana planned a trekking trip to Nepal in 2021. As soon as she reached Pokhara, all her tiredness seemed to slip away, and she felt as though her life had changed.&nbsp; “I was drawn to Pokhara’s mountains, the nature, and the climate,” says Hana (pictured, below) who was in Nepal to do the Annapurna trek. “But once here, I discovered the healing benefits of yoga and meditation.” Hana is back in Pokhara for the third time in three years, and spends time in daily meditation and yoga. She says, “Pokhara is so peaceful and beautiful, it is the perfect yoga destination.”&nbsp; Like Hana, there are thousands of ‘meditation tourists’ visiting Pokhara during what used to be the monsoon off-season for visitors. Many yoga retreats have sprung up in and around this scenic city, and instructors advertise private meditation classes in hotels.&nbsp; One instructor is Maheswar Man Shrestha, who grew up as a sickly child in Kathmandu and was often hospitalised, missing school for months at a time. When modern medicine did not work, his father, himself a doctor, sought ayurvedic treatment and combined it with yoga and meditation. Shrestha soon got miraculously better. &nbsp; Now in his fifties, Shrestha is a true believer in the power of yogic healing. “I went from medication to meditation, I am living proof that yoga ensures physical and mental wellbeing,” says Shrestha (pictured, below) who teaches yoga to overseas tourists at his Purna Yoga Retreat.&nbsp; Being both the start and end point for treks makes Pokhara perfect for tourists to combine physically taxing Himalayan hikes with a soothing recovery. But even outside the trekking season, its lush monsoon greenery, the lakes and cloudscape make Pokhara the ideal place to decompress from the material world. “Pokhara’s proximity to nature and relatively clean environment makes it great for tourists to come here to learn yoga,” Shrestha says. Indeed, Nepal’s travel industry has lately discovered that blending mountains and meditation is a popular combination. After all, the Buddha was born in Lumbini, a seven hour drive to the south of Pokhara, and for many a trek in Nepal is already also a pilgrimage. Rishi Raj Lamsal worked for a travel agency outfitting and guiding trekking groups. Once, on a hike to Poon Hill, his clients gasped at the panorama of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna at sunrise, and they promptly took out yoga mats and started doing asana and pranayam.&nbsp; It was there and then that Lamsal (pictured) realised that tourism had a spiritual aspect that Nepal’s travel industry had largely ignored. As soon as he returned to Kathmandu, he started designing meditatiton tourism packages. Lamsal also learnt yoga and has been an instructor based in Pokhara for many years, teaching not just foreign visitors but also Nepalis from all over the country.&nbsp; “I have been to 42 districts, but there is no place like Pokhara, its geography is ideal to mixing tourism with spiritualism. It is natural beauty that draws people initially, but once here they also find inner peace,” Lamsal says.&nbsp; Deepa Basnet initially took up yoga to reduce weight, but is now pursuing a degree in yoga and is also an instructor on the side. “I wanted to increase my knowledge of yoga beyond the basic asana to ayurveda,” she explains.&nbsp; Pokhara’s fame as a yoga city has been boosted by the Indian Embassy holding the International Day of Yoga on 21 June every year in partnership with local organisations. The city’s strategic location between sacred Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage sites of Muktinath and Lumbini also help. Ekraj Rokaya used to be a migrant worker in the Gulf, and while there he began to ruminate on impermanence, suffering and human existence. He returned to Nepal a changed person, and began to practice and teach yoga and meditation, changing his name to Raj Karmayogi.&nbsp; Seeing the benefits of meditation, he wanted to share its value with others and set up a yoga school in Pokhara six years ago. “Pokhara is a yoga city just like Rishikesh in India, it can be associated internationally with yoga,” he believes.&nbsp; Indeed, with better road connectivity yoga centres are no longer concentrated in Pokhara city, but have been established in the surrounding mountains which command a stunning panorama of the Annapurnas. &nbsp;&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240817120824_c38be59a8ca83ce85c0d1277e248c25855a188474b1c3a4bb4e0642a0901413b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20240817120824_c38be59a8ca83ce85c0d1277e248c25855a188474b1c3a4bb4e0642a0901413b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Medication to Meditation yoga and tourism in Pokhara NT 5"> </figure>  Pokhara was the venue for the International Yoga Festival in March last year with 50 overseas participants, and a four-day repeat of the festival is planned for October in which renowned instructors will be taking part.&nbsp; While individuals and instructors are promoting Pokhara on their own, they lament the lack of interest on the part of the government and the Nepal Tourism Board in marketing the city as a yoga hub internationally.&nbsp; “There is zero interest from the government to promote yoga tourism,” states Manohar Shrestha (pictured, below), of Purna Yoga Retreat Centre which takes tourists on hikes in the nearby mountains with yoga and meditation sessions in the mornings and evenings.&nbsp; Since India has branded the International Day of Yoga, Shrestha and Lamsal suggest Pokhara could be promoted as an International Meditation City, and the Nepal government could set aside an annual commemorative day for it, which the provincial and municipal government can then peg events on. “Nepal and the Himalaya are where the Buddha and numerous Hindu sages meditated, these mountains are the spiritual home of both religions. There is no better place to honour them by rediscovering yoga,”says Lamsal.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-season-in-the-nepal-himalaya">Peak season in the Nepal Himalaya</a>, Vishad Raj Onta But like all other sectors in Nepal, there is a lack of regulation, and fly-by-night yoga retreat operators are giving the city a bad reputation. It is not only Nepalis involved, foreign trainers also bring clients and take private classes without paying taxes, local retreat owners say. Only certified instructors should be allowed to train and proper protocols should be in place for yoga tourism, they add.&nbsp; Krishna Prasad Bhandari of the Pokhara Tourism Council adds: “Yoga and meditation must be developed such that it becomes synonymous with Pokhara, but we should not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs in the process.”&nbsp; <h2>Spiritual scams</h2> Katherine is an American yoga teacher and practitioner who signed up for a 300-hour training course at a yoga centre in Pokhara. It was a two-month course specifically tailored for trainers and instructors, and Katherine paid $2,800 after arriving in Nepal.&nbsp; She was deeply disappointed. Nothing was what was promised on the website, and she filed a complaint with the Nepal Tourism Board.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240817120816_63135505a5c57153a6b647ee24bed17cf3e28f52b59b267f8a70f6b6a24316c5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20240817120816_63135505a5c57153a6b647ee24bed17cf3e28f52b59b267f8a70f6b6a24316c5" data-rendition-name="original" width="5184" height="3888" loading="lazy" alt="Medication to Meditation yoga NT 2"> </figure>  “The trainer was not qualified and the training lacked &nbsp;international standard. I feel cheated,” said Katherine (name changed). “I &nbsp;wasted the flight cost and course fee, it all went down the drain.” As Pokhara gains popularity as a destination for yoga tourism, there are also reports of others like Katherine being scammed.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-malaysia-nepal-migrant-scam-nexus">The Malaysia-Nepal migrant scam nexus</a>, Ramu Sapkota and S Vinothaa Spiritual ‘wellness’ centres have sprouted like mushroom along Pokhara’s Lakeside. Some promise 200-hour teacher training, others have 300 hours sessions and some are 21 days long. The lack of regulation and strict enforcement of guidelines for instructors and certification of ashrams is the main reason for the increase in fraud in the business.&nbsp; “Some individuals and organisations offer training and classes without understanding the depth and importance of yoga and meditation,” says instructor Maheswar Man Shrestha. “There are instructors in hotels who are responding to demand but lack &nbsp;knowledge and training to teach others.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240817120820_581167e11418f3f29220d98cee5fc4e2c975544a4c44377f6822cd06c4cc0b40.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20240817120820_581167e11418f3f29220d98cee5fc4e2c975544a4c44377f6822cd06c4cc0b40" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="810" loading="lazy" alt="Medication to Meditation yoga NT 3"> </figure>  It should be up to the Nepal Tourism Board and Gandaki Province Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment to prevent Pokhara from getting a bad name for cheating foreign yoga students. &nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/embossed-plate-company-involved-in-scam">Embossed plate company involved in scam</a>, Ramesh Kumar Pokhara Mayor Dhana Raj Acharya admits there are some unscrupulous establishments, and says his municipality is coordinating with the Gandaki Province government to crackdown. He adds, “The reason is that the spiritual wellness sector is relatively new and we have not been able to play catchup with regulatory mechanisms.”&nbsp; &nbsp;Nepal Tourism Board’s Nabin Pokharel says he understands the need to standardise yoga and meditation centres with some regulatory guidelines. He admits: “If we don’t do something about it, it can give a negative impression of Pokhara.” If Katherine’s experience is any indication, that is already happening.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240817120820_fa6a5c3ac5b22b18e17221e187c696a38ffab83fcf3cd11381bfd508a07a26d6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20240817120820_fa6a5c3ac5b22b18e17221e187c696a38ffab83fcf3cd11381bfd508a07a26d6" data-rendition-name="original" width="785" height="889" loading="lazy" alt="Medication to Meditation yoga and tourism in Pokhara NT 4"> </figure>

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Medication to Meditation in the Mountains

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412114/6372214b9c7e80680e0c02abjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="466"/>After the Department of Land Transportation (DoTM) issued a 16 July deadline for vehicle owners in Nepal to replace current license plates with embossed ones, it has emerged that the company contracted to do so was blacklisted by the World Bank.The Nepal government repeatedly extended the $44 million contract it granted to a subsidiary of Tiger IT Bangladesh to install the computerised car plates which have camera-readable English digits, and an embedded chip that allows GPS tracking.Nepali Times has obtained official documents that show that on 24 April 2019, Tiger IT Bangladesh and its CEO Ziaur Rahman were blacklisted by the World Bank’s Sanctions Board for ‘collusive, corrupt and disruptive’ practices on a bid for one of its projects in Bangladesh.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-goes-electric-but-conditions-apply/"> Nepal goes electric, but conditions apply</a>, Ramesh Kumar<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412114/6372214d9c7e80680e0c02acjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="456" height="560"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The case was heard on 5 March 5 2019 at the World Bank's headquarters in Washington DC in presence of its vice-chair where it concluded, ‘The defendants were found to have colluded in barring open competition.’Tiger IT is said to have bribed top government officials, did not provide required details and documents to the World Bank, and ‘deliberately acted to materially impede the Bank’s investigation into the misconduct’. The company is barred from participating in any other World Bank projects for nine and a half years, and its CEO Rahman for six and a half years.Decatur-Tiger IT, a joint venture of Tiger IT Bangladesh and US company Decatur, was first awarded the contract on 30 May 2016 to install embossed number plates on vehicles in Nepal in a deal worth $43.787 million (Rs4.68 billion).Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-risks-being-blacklisted-on-money-laundering/">Nepal risks being blacklisted on money laundering</a>, Sharad Ojha<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412114/6372214f9c7e80680e0c02adjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1231" height="487"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The initial agreement was to install number plates in 2.5 million vehicles in five years by mid-September of 2021. But after delays, the government renewed the contract for another two-and-half years despite knowing that the company had been sanctioned the previous year by the World Bank in its home country.In 2014, Tiger IT had won a World Bank contract for the 'Identification System for Enhancing Access to Service Project' to establish a secure and reliable national identity system in Bangladesh. But the Bank’s investigation found that Tiger IT and its French partner had committed  fraud to win the bid.Interestingly, Tiger IT has been involved in a slew of other projects in Nepal for the past decade. In 2013 it provided voter registration system software services to the Election Commission with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The project, however, did not go ahead for unspecified reasons, but that is not mentioned on the company’s homepage.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-richest-man-in-the-pandora-papers/">Nepal’s richest man in the Pandora Papers</a>, Nepali Times<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111412114/637221519c7e80680e0c02aejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="761" height="397"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In 2010 it was involved in the conversion to machine-readable passports in Nepal in collaboration with France’s Oberthur Technologies.Experts find it fishy that a blacklisted foreign company has such insider access to successive governments in Nepal that it wins one controversial contract after another. The passport project was also mired in allegations of kickbacks in high places.The embossed number plate project has also been criticised because the letters and digits are in English and not Nepali when many countries in the region, including Bangladesh itself, have number plates with fonts of the country’s national language.The DoTM deadline requires all vehicles in Gandaki and Bagmati provinces to switch to embossed plates or face a fine. There is an elaborate online process to fill the forms in English, and the process is said to be cumbersome, opening the possibility of further corruption and payoff to middlemen at DoTM offices.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/corruption-deep-rooted-in-government/">Corruption deep rooted in government</a>, Nepali Times

Embossed plate company involved in scam

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131140/636a4ed59c7e80680e04fcd8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="896"/><figcaption>FLASHBACK: Nepal’s Labour Minister Tek Bahadur Gurung met with Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (left) in Kuala Lumpur in 2015, agreeing on letting private Malysian and Nepali companies to process visas for Nepali workers.</figcaption></figure>The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission began prosecution this week against Malaysia’s former Deputy Prime Minister and Internal Affairs Minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, for charges against corruption related to migrant labour.Hamidi was arrested on 24 June and released on bail after being charged with 33 crimes, including one that claims he took more than 42 million Malaysian Ringgit (more than $10 million), as a bribe for letting the Malaysian company, Ultra Kirana, become a One Stop Center (OSC) for visa processing and labour migration. If these allegations are proven, Hamidi could face a jail sentence of up to 20 years.Hamidi was named in a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kleptocrats-of-kathmandu-and-kualalampur/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joint investigation conducted by Nepali Times and Malaysiakini</a> last year in a Rs1.9 billion scam that cheated tens of thousands of poor Nepalis between 2013-17 who were migrating to work in Malaysia.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kleptocrats-of-kathmandu-and-kualalampur/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kleptocrats of Kathmandu and Kuala Lumpur</a>, Ramu Sapkota with Alyaa Alhadjri Ultra Kirana, the company accused of bribing Hamidi, represents Malaysia’s VLN company in Nepal, that processes the visa applications of Nepali migrant workers going to Malaysia. VLN Nepal used to collect illegal fees from labourers and send the money to Ultra Kirana through informal channels.Since the investigation was published, the government in Malaysia changed after elections, and both countries banned the Nepali workers going to Malaysia pending an inquiry. Nepal Labour Minister Gokarna Bista promised to clean up the racket and make it fee-free for Nepalis wanting to work in Malaysia. The ban has still not been lifted.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/malaysia-wants-ban-lifted/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Malaysia wants ban lifted</a><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131140/636a4ed99c7e80680e04fcd9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In Malaysia, investigations on Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government began after a new government was formed under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad following the general elections in 2018. Hamidi, who was the Internal Affairs Minister in Razak’s administration, was arrested for the first time in October 2018 by Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Commission.He was charged with acquiring at least 114 million Ringgit ($2.6 million) through illegal means, and 45 cases were filed at the High Court, including 27 cases of money laundering, 10 of breach of trust, and 8 for accepting bribes.Among the charges of bribery was one that alleged that he accepted more than $3 million from three companies including Profound Radiance, which used to collect the passports of Nepali workers and take them to the Malaysian Embassy in Kathmandu. The charge sheet mentions that Hamidi accepted a total of three bank cheques worth 2 million Ringgit ($300,000) from Ajlan Shah Jafril, the Director of Profound Radiance.Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/disproportionate-number-of-deaths-of-Nepali-workers-in-Malaysia,2812" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dying to work in Malaysia</a>, Sonia AwaleMalaysia’s Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi met Nepal’s then Labour Minister Tek Bahadur Gurung in 2015 and outsourced the work to Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd which required Nepali migrant workers to apply for work visas through the Kathmandu-based affiliate, Malaysia VLN Nepal. The agency charged Rs3,200 from every Malaysia-bound Nepali worker, and collected Rs1.95 billion from more than 600,000 workers between September 2013 and April 2018.Then in July 2015, Malaysia made it mandatory for all Nepali migrants to undergo a biometric test for which the Malaysian government hired Bestinet Sdn Bhd, a tech firm run by Hamidi’s brother-in-law Amin Bin Abdul Nor. Hamidi’s brother Abdul Hakim Hamidi and ex-Malaysian Environment Minister Ajmi Khalid also reportedly owned shares in Bestinet.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nepali-migrants-hounded-out-Malaysia-,3036" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hounded out of Malaysia</a>, Om Astha RaiBestinet partnered with Nepal Health Professional Federation (NHPF) to carry out biometric screening through 39 medical centres which charged Rs4,500 from each migrant worker for biometrics. Bestinet denied the allegations, and in a statement published in July 2018, they hinted that it could take legal action against Nepali Times and the reporters.Previously, migrant workers could apply for visas independently or through a manpower agency. They could get a work visa for just Rs700, and could have medical tests done at any of 200 government-approved health facilities.In Nepal, the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security started prosecuting the company that charged migrant labourers extra fees. Since then, Nepali workers were stopped from going to Malaysia even though the two governments <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-malaysia-labour-pact/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed a Memorandum of Understanding</a> (MoU) on October 2018 to resume sending workers.Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/nepalis-killed-in-the-line-of-duty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Killed in the line of duty</a>, Om Astha Rai and Sonia AwaleThe Minister for Labour, Gokarna Bista, says the selection of an institution for health checkups of aspiring labour migrants is in the last stages now, adding that the Joint Technical Committee, tasked with implementing the MoU, is preparing for its second meeting.“No one has the right to swindle workers. The ministry’s stance on the companies that created a syndicate in visa processing remains the same,” Bista told Nepali Times.However, even as the case against Hamidi moves forward in the Malaysian courts, in Nepal, the counterparts of the companies involved have gone scot free.None of the companies involved, or the senior officials who allowed Hamidi to get away with swindling labour migrants, have been investigated.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-malaysia-labour-pact/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal-Malaysia Labour Pact</a>, Ramu Sapkota  Additional reporting by Abdul Rashid

Punished in Malaysia, ignored in Nepal

Samsung Nepal has opened pre-orders for the Galaxy A57 5G and A37 5G. Both phones run Samsung’s One UI 8.5, featuring AI capabilities like voice transcription, Circle to Search, and photo editing. They feature a 50MP triple-camera system, a Super AMOLED display, and six years of OS and security updates.

Galaxy A series

The war in West Asia has exposed the fragility of the economic architecture Nepal has built on over two generations. If the conflict continues, growth across developing Asia will slow and prices will rise. For Nepal, this will be felt through higher living costs, weaker economic activity, and growing uncertainty for the millions of families who depend on remittances.&nbsp; Nepal now needs to structurally transform from exporting labour to investing in domestic job creation. &nbsp; The country's current path toward a knowledge economy has a blind spot. A <a href="https://iids.org.np/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/unleashing.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> by the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS) in Kathmandu shows that IT export companies alone generated 7,228 jobs and income for 66,509 freelancers.&nbsp; We are building digital labour export, not an economy that accumulates institutional knowledge. The Nepali Upwork developer and a migrant construction worker in the Gulf are engaged in the same economic activity, but with different tools. Nepal’s reliance on a <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.TRF.PWKR.DT.GD.ZS?locations=NP" target="_blank">remittance-driven economy,</a> means the country has failed to create enough <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/nepal/publication/unlocking-nepal-s-growth-potential" target="_blank">quality jobs</a> at home. For millions of young people, leaving the country is not a choice but a necessity to survive and support families back home. <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/nepal/publication/unlocking-nepal-s-growth-potential" target="_blank">Remittances</a> have no doubt helped reduce poverty. Thirty years ago, 55% of Nepal’s population lived on less than $2.15 a day, now it is 20% after the absolute poverty line was revised upwards. This progress has come at a cost — &nbsp;an economy that depends more on exporting workers than creating opportunities at home. This development reflects a deeper political failure to create meaningful jobs within the country. Since the democratic transition in 1991, Nepal’s leadership has largely recycled the same faces, with limited progress on job creation or industrial growth.&nbsp; Nepal cannot build a <a href="https://nipore.org/accelerating-nepals-startups/" target="_blank">knowledge economy</a> while its most ambitious people are outbound to Doha and Tokyo. We are also not just losing ‘labour’. We are losing the entrepreneurial risk tolerance of our youth.&nbsp; If the most ambitious 25-year-olds are abroad, who is left to support innovation and entrepreneurship? The same people who are working tirelessly abroad, are our biggest asset for development. Their work ethic and the know-how inurban renewal could well fit into the new RSP government’s mandate of 7% annual growth.&nbsp; The <a href="https://english.biznessnews.com/posts/-nepal%E2%80%99s-it-exports-cross-1-billion-" target="_blank">$1B milestone</a> of IT exports is a celebratory moment for Nepal. However, that cannot lead to a pathway to a $100 billion economy without innovation ecosystems that go beyond individual labour export. Companies like SecurityPal and industry associations such as NASIT have made significant efforts in building such an environment, recently championed by private sector leaders as a &nbsp;<a href="https://www.securitypalhq.com/blog/silicon-peaks" target="_blank">Silicon Peaks</a> model that emphasises a home growth tech cluster. The need to accelerate this transition is even more urgent with the escalating conflict in West Asia. &nbsp;The recent International Labour Organisation (ILO) <a href="https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2026-03/Nepal%20LDC%20Graduation%20Employment%20Impacts%20Report.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> shows that LDC graduation is expected to adversely impact manufacturing with losses of $1 billion by 2030.&nbsp; If manufacturing takes such a large hit from losing trade preferences, then Nepal’s services and IT sectors need to structurally transform and shift from exporting individual talent to building firms. &nbsp; A generation’s frustration has finally forced a shift in Nepal’s political structure, handing the new government a clear mandate to fix failures. But the question still persists: what prevents Nepal from achieving sustained, productivity-driven growth? &nbsp;&nbsp; RSP is in the right place at the right time to put Nepal's economy on a firm footing. At the heart of Nepal’s economic underperformance lies a major development binding constraint: low returns to investment on projects.&nbsp; The government invests like a high-growth economy, with gross capital formation at around <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.GDI.FTOT.ZS?locations=NP" target="_blank">25–30 percent of GDP</a>. Yet economic growth remains modest. The problem is not how much the country invests, but how little it gets in return. One way to see this is by looking at how much investment is required to generate growth.&nbsp; Nepal needs large amounts of capital to produce relatively small gains in output (graph, below). For instance, in 2024, the ICOR was 8.29, this suggests that Nepal had to invest more than 8 units of capital to produce a one unit of additional economic output.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260406040412_605dc527641d2ff2dc5723ed8bbec946898331d5538a55b9941e32a0725bf811.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20260406040412_605dc527641d2ff2dc5723ed8bbec946898331d5538a55b9941e32a0725bf811" data-rendition-name="original" width="1827" height="925" loading="lazy" alt="Economy graph"> <figcaption>Source: Author's calculation based on a Growth Diagnostic simulation</figcaption> </figure>  This reflects a deeper issue in how investment is allocated and executed. Capital is often locked in low-productivity sectors or diluted by delays, inefficiencies, and policy uncertainty.&nbsp; As a result, even high levels of investment fail to translate into sustained growth. Until investment shifts toward productive, firm-building activities, higher spending alone will not deliver results. &nbsp; To reverse this, the government must focus on raising the returns to investment by enabling firms to grow and compete. This requires a shift from managing scarcity to creating an environment where capital can generate consistent and predictable returns. A central priority should be given to attracting and retaining both domestic and foreign private investment. Investors do not just respond to direct incentives, but also to policy stability in the country. Nepal’s economy cannot sustain high growth if its human capital continues to leave the country.&nbsp; The goal should not simply be to create jobs, but to build companies that scale, innovate, and compete beyond Nepal. This requires supporting sectors with strong productivity potential and ensuring that firms can expand without being constrained by infrastructure gaps or regulatory friction. Finally, the state must improve the quality of its own investment. Public spending should focus on lowering the cost of doing business through reliable electricity, efficient logistics, and digital infrastructure.&nbsp; The GenZ movement took two days to bring change. The economic transformation of Nepal might take a generation. The RSP can accelerate this transition, but only if it focuses on building a better investment climate for business and not just feeding the global labour pool. Kailash Raj Pandey is an MPA/ID and MBA candidate at Harvard Kennedy School and MIT Sloan School of Management and a fellow at MIT Kuo Sharper Center for Innovation and Prosperity.&nbsp; Siddhartha Raymajhí is a policy researcher based in Kathmandu.

Creating a firm future for Nepal

Know your Ministers

Prime Minister Balendra Shah on Wednesday broke tradition and met with 17 foreign envoys collectively, a move that was a notable departure from how his predecessors operated.&nbsp;
Shah had already set himself apart by talking less, listening more, and delegating to trusted friends. But by meeting all ambassadors at one go in the presence of the Foreign Ministry, he signalled a paradigm shift in how he wants Nepal to be seen: no longer just balancing India and China, but as a country confident about its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/tripolar-contestation-over-nepal">strategic importance and place in the world</a>.
In just two weeks, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rsp-dos-and-don-ts">RSP has sprung into action </a>on multiple fronts to implement its ambitious 100-point, 100-days action plan. It has taken short-term measures to mitigate the impact of the Gulf war, as well as medium- and long- term measures to streamline the bureaucracy. A few high-profile figures have been made examples of to drive the message home.
Earlier this week, the government recalled six politically appointed ambassadors, the most notable being long-serving Shankar Sharma from New Delhi. The Kathmandu District Court issued arrest warrants against former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his former foreign minister wife Arzu Rana on charges of money laundering and corruption.
Each ministry has been trying to clean up the accumulated rot from the past three decades: regulatory overhaul of microfinance, education, health and service delivery.&nbsp;
These actions widely disseminated campaign-style on YouTube and TikTok have made most Nepalis hopeful that the party they installed in power means business.
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BACKLASH
But such attempts to overhaul a long-entrenched political culture were bound to face backlash. In their impatience and enthusiasm to get things done, some of Prime Minister Shah’s ministers have over-reached.
It was common knowledge that government-paid advertising in the mainstream press was kickback-driven, but the PMO’s directive that official notices be published or broadcast only on state-run media has been denounced — especially as the media industry struggles to stay afloat.
More serious are some recent appointments by ministers of relatives and figures closely associated with the RSP to key positions. This has rankled because this party built its political plank on ending nepotism and graft.&nbsp;
News that Home Minister Sudan Gurung allegedly had not paid rent on leased land, which illegally encroached on the lake in Pokhara did not help. &nbsp;
Prime Minister Shah himself has come under scrutiny for appointing a kitchen cabinet full of male buddies from his time as Kathmandu mayor. To douse criticism he brought in as adviser investigative journalist Deepa Dahal, who has exposed corruption in high places of the previous coalitions.&nbsp;
Shah’s appointment of another political adviser Asim Shah to the head Constitution Amendment Task Force, is also seen as problematic. He is a filmmaker and former lawmaker, but does not have a background in constitutional law.&nbsp;
Even more controversial is the Cabinet’s decision to appoint RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane’s legal counsel, Narayan Kandel, as Attorney General. Kandel used to be a UK permanent resident, and does not have as much experience practicing law in Nepal.&nbsp;
Kandel’s appointment drew flak and raised eyebrows, and with the pending legal cases against Lamichhane this appointment represents a flagrant conflict of interest.
Health Minister Nisha Mehta was also accused of favouritism after reappointing Junu Shrestha, wife of Labour Minister Dipak Kumar Shah, as member of the Health Insurance Board which had earlier suspended her. The Labour Minister’s rambling rant at the Board’s meeting on Tuesday has not helped the RSP’s image.&nbsp;
(UPDATE: On Thursday, Prime Minister Shah sacked the Labour Minister after the RSP found him in breach of the party's code of conduct and discipline. He served 14 days in the Cabinet, one of the shortest tenures for a minister in Nepal )
It is hard to know what <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ball-in-balen-s-court">Balendra Shah is thinking</a>, and how Rabi Lamichhane is going to justify some of these moves. After all, making politics, governance, and bureaucracy a meritocracy has been the core tenet of the RSP, and it risks alienating its mainly youth base if these missteps persist.
But at least for now, most RSP supporters seem to be giving the party the benefit of doubt.