New Delhi, April 5 (IANS) Nepal’s first billionaire, Binod K Chaudhary, has said that Bangladesh and Nepal could strengthen economic ties in energy and cross-border trade, with closer regional cooperation involving India.”We would like to enter into a much bigger economic engagement with Bangladesh, but without India playing a positive role, that’s not going to happen,” Chaudhary said on Saturday at a press conference organised by the International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh (ICCB) in Dhaka,…
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Taipei, April 4 (IANS) With the rise of new political leadership in Kathmandu and growing strategic constraint on China’s engagement with Nepal, there is hope that the stronger democratic institutions would enable the Nepali people to comprehend Beijing’s expansionist ambitions in Nepal and the wider South Asian region, a report highlighted on Saturday. “This year’s parliamentary election in Nepal — the first after the Gen Z-led violent protest that toppled the previous government in Sep…
New Delhi, April 1 (IANS) China has stepped up efforts as a global peace broker with initiatives on a possible stop to the United States-Iran war and the Afghan-Pakistan armed conflict, even as Islamabad’s offer to host players involved in the West Asian theatre gains ground, raising questions over current relations between the “all-weather friends.” It was perhaps not a coincidence that Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar rushed to Beijing two days after b…
Kathmandu, April 1 (IANS) Nepal has witnessed the impact of the ongoing West Asia crisis as the number of foreign tourist arrivals from Europe, the Americas, West Asia, and Africa has dropped sharply in March, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) said on Wednesday. The conflict has been ongoing since February 28, when the US and Israel launched a military attack on Iran. Its fallout is being felt across the world, with travel restrictions and rising prices affecting the entire global economy.Usually, N…
Kabul, April 1 (IANS) UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, has criticised the continued ban preventing Afghan women from accessing United Nations offices, terming the policy discriminatory and unjustifiable, local media reported on Wednesday. Bennett on Tuesday called for lifting restriction on Afghan women’s access to UN premises, warning that it showcases a serious attack on women’s rights and ability to work. Bennett joined 27 other UN expert…
Islamabad, March 30 (IANS) Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership should be pressed to confront the consequences of decades of strategic tolerance and nurturing towards terrorism operating from its soil — an approach that has made the country the most terror-affected in the world, according to a new report. The Pakistani people, who have borne the greatest cost of this policy in blood, deserve leadership that places their security above entrenched strategic doctrines.”For decades, Pakistan…
New Delhi, March 30 (IANS) The Middle East crisis poses a greater risk to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, among the South Asian countries, due to their high dependence on imported energy and limited reserve supplies, according to an S&P Global Ratings report.Since these countries are particularly vulnerable to rising oil prices and potential supply disruptions, a prolonged price and supply shock in global energy markets could hit their sovereign credit ratings, the report states.S&P …
New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) Union Minister of State for Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh on Monday said that India’s largest pregnancy cohort study of 12,000 women under the GARBH‑INi initiative aims to develop indigenous, AI‑driven solutions to prevent preterm births.Singh at an event here, said the study supports creation of AI-based pregnancy dating models tailored for Indian populations, identification of microbiome-based predictors of preterm birth, rapid diagnostic tools, a…
Washington, March 23 (IANS) The US government has opposed an attempt by well-known American policy expert Ashley J. Tellis to get serious charges against him dismissed, saying he wrongly kept highly sensitive national security documents at his home for years.Tellis is widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on India and South Asia in the United States, with a long career in government and strategic policy circles.According to government filings, Tellis — who worked with the US State Dep…
New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) Sri Lanka on Sunday sharply increased fuel prices by up to 25 per cent, marking the second hike in just two weeks, as the island nation braces for the widening impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East on global energy markets.The price of regular petrol was raised to Rs 398 per litre from Rs 317 earlier, while diesel — widely used in public transport — saw a steep increase of Rs 79, taking it to Rs 382 per litre.The latest revision comes close on the heels o…