<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141132/636bac9a9c7e80680e077f40jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"/><figcaption>Sonja Rusticus and Buddhi Darlami at their Bardia Homestay. They say live virtual tours have allowed them to keep staff employed during the COVID-19 lockdown tourism slump. Photos: MUKESH POKHREL</figcaption></figure>For travellers whose <a href="https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-element-cse&amp;cx=011870630917993763279:opm7uqsat-4&amp;q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/lets-call-off-visit-nepal-year-2020/&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiw2vb117bqAhWR4HMBHXAXAtkQFjAAegQIARAC&amp;usg=AOvVaw1IrW3sKKab4066clFQv7AX" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?client%3Dinternal-element-cse%26cx%3D011870630917993763279:opm7uqsat-4%26q%3Dhttps://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/lets-call-off-visit-nepal-year-2020/%26sa%3DU%26ved%3D2ahUKEwiw2vb117bqAhWR4HMBHXAXAtkQFjAAegQIARAC%26usg%3DAOvVaw1IrW3sKKab4066clFQv7AX&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594357294653000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFfQhWGlrY3Y7VIsShKWCOL6rhVxQ">Visit Nepal plans</a> in 2020 were scuppered by the pandemic, Bardia Homestay is bringing Nepal's Tarai plains into living rooms around the world through virtual tours.Co-owners Sonja Rusticus and Buddhi Darlami came up with the idea of virtual tours during the long hours under lockdown with no in-person tourists visiting the Bardia National Park to admire its abundant biodiversity and indigenous <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=3997" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D3997&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594357294653000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFY_0l_xLB5Uwc9yGaAXRHfZT_azA">Tharu culture.</a>“This is the next best thing to being in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/bardiya-beginnings-Lisa-Choegyal,1085" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/So-far-so-good/bardiya-beginnings-Lisa-Choegyal,1085&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594357294653000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFMx5C7VQ0Rp2hE23RcVbrmLhyvJA">Bardia</a> yourself, and it will also generate income at a time when there are no visitors so we do not have to lay off staff,” says Darlami who set up Bardia Homestay six years ago, combining his two-decade experience as a tour guide with Rusticus’ entrepreneurial expertise.The tours come with cooking lessons in local cuisine, farming tours, wildlife safaris and cultural tours. Bardia Homestay, together with Dutch tour operator Travel Nepal, created the tourism platform <a href="http://mynepal.online/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://Mynepal.online&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594357294653000&amp;usg=AFQjCNExaSouPplBoU2MbqX1xp9RyMes7g">Mynepal.online</a>, of which the virtual tours are a part.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/survive-2020-revive-in-2021-and-thrive-in-2022/">“Survive 2020, revive in 2021 and thrive in 2022”</a>, Alisha SijapatiFor €8.5 euros per person, the 40-minute long farming tours involve rice planting, harvesting, de-seeding of seedbeds and ploughing of fields using oxen. Local Tharu guides take travellers on virtual walks through the lush Bardia countryside while explaining traditional farming methods.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141132/636bac9d9c7e80680e077f41jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1328" height="429">The jungle walks also cost the same, but online tourists will accompany guides as they stalk Bardia’s abundant wildlife, including swamp deer, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/gharial-found-breeding-in-nepal-after-37-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/gharial-found-breeding-in-nepal-after-37-years/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594357294653000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEIYQBRwSOWa8M-2z-Nf4W6e4HCJQ">gharial crocodiles</a>, black bucks, the one-horned rhinoceros. And if it is your lucky day you get rare sightings of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594357294653000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHtkl3oi7lNWkdiK5pDH0J1_c0H9Q">tiger</a> or the endangered Gangetic fresh-water dolphin.In the simulated safaris, guests will follow guides as they go deep into the jungle, peer through undergrowth into clearings, tip-toe along the Karnali’s ox-bow lakes, and wade through grasslands. The guides also explain the various vegetation zones of the National Park, as well as the conservation research efforts underway there with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/its-a-jungle-out-there/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/its-a-jungle-out-there/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594357294653000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE7QP2qRuO2iUUxucpSDLzbpYP-Kw">Himalayan Tiger Foundation</a> based in The Netherlands.Slightly more expensive at €15 per person are cooking lessons for Nepali-style dal bhat, or Tharu specialities including fresh water mussels, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tharu-escargots/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tharu-escargots/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594357294653000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH5xwj2N_wZNr4Go08dRh6Yxntquw">snails</a> and tiny crabs, accompanied by sesame rice.<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/half-full/re-imagining-tourism-in%20nepal,1103" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Re-imagining tourism</a>, Anil Chitrakar"We try to make the live virtual tours as real as possible with two cameras," Darlami explains. One is a GoPro on the guide so guests see what he sees, while the other focuses on the guide as he describes the tour.  The online excursions use the Zoom application, and last 40 minutes each.Rusticus and Darlami were inspired by the success of virtual city tours and cooking classes in Europe. Says Rusticus: “Their methods and approach to guiding impressed us, so we wanted to bring such tours to our homestay.”Most of those have signed up so far are Dutch tourists among the 400 most recent visitors to the Bardia Homestay, and they have been happy to relive their experience in Nepal.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141132/636bac9f9c7e80680e077f42jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125">As information spreads through word of mouth, more and more people are Zooming into Nepal and the Homestay plans to move into the second phase.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/guiding-nepals-tourism-industry/">Guiding Nepal’s tourism industry</a>, Anil Chitrakar“As this is a new experience for us, we are still in the developmental phase,” says Rusticus, “our target group so far has been Dutch nationals but we want to expand now to German, British and others in Europe."Virtual tours also allow Bardia Homestay to generate some revenue and retain employees at a time when most companies in the hospitality business in Nepal have been forced to close or retrench staff.Says Rusticus: “For the moment our virtual tours are just to manage costs during the lockdown so people do not lose jobs. It is not to earn profits.”The fact that people are signing in to the virtual tours may be a model for other crisis-ridden hotels and trekking agencies in Nepal. There can be virtual treks, virtual cultural tours of Kathmandu Valley towns and festivals like Saparu on 4 August this year.There could be virtual pilgrimages to Gosainkunda on Janai Purnima which this year falls on 3 August, or even online day-by-day sightseeing along trekking trails after the rains are over.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/homestay-brings-locals-home/">Homestay brings locals home</a>, Reeti K.C.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/homestays-keep-former-migrants-in-nepal/">Homestays keep former migrants in Nepal</a>, Mukesh Pokhrelinfo@mynepal.online

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Visit Nepal (Virtually) 2020

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.

virtual-tours

Visit Nepal (Virtually) 2020

Galaxy A series

Creating a firm future for Nepal

Know your Ministers

Nepal’s new government springs into action