News, Views From Nepal

Yuba Nath Lamsal:- Barely a month has passed since the newly elected President of the United States Donald Trump assumed office. Soon after he took office of presidency Trump signed a large number of executive orders that have created a wide-ranging impact both at home and abroad. The suspension of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has created more hue and cry within America and across the world. This decision has impacted many countries that received US assistance through the USAID. Initially, the USAID activities have been suspended for three months and all US staff working in the USAID have been called back. Since President Trump’s close aide, Elon Musk, called the USAID a ‘criminal organisation’, this agency is less likely to be revived even after three months. Trump’s decision to withdraw from other international commitments including the Paris Climate Agreement, the World Health Organisation and others will also have a global impact. Most of the ...

Yuba Nath Lamsal:- The earth surface consists of three basic components air, water and land. Water covers 70.8 per cent of total earth area while only 29.2 per cent is the land surface. The land area is divided into different continents - Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, South America and North America and Antarctica, while the water part is divided into different oceans which are - Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Arctic Oceans. Both the continents and oceans are further divided into-subsystems. The sub-systems include different regions that are classified on geographic, economic, strategic, cultural and maritime basis. Countries are small units in the broader global system. They operate depending upon their strength and capability and try to influence other countries. Different factors determine powers and strength of a country. Geography, economy, natural resources, location, demography, physical size and level of economic and other development as well as military strength are some ...

Yuba Nath Lamsal:- In ‘Kumarasambhava’ epic, great Sanskrit poet Kalidasha says ‘Himalayas is the centre of earth’. Nepal is an ancient Himalayan country in South Asia with a long history of its continued existence as an independent country, which stands as the crossroads of Chinese and South Asian civilisations. Nepal is a not only a country but a civilization - the Himalayan civilization or ‘Himabatkhanda’. Different archaeological evidences have pointed to the fact that Nepal as a Himalayas civilisation has existed right from 300 BC, which is more than 2300 years ago. But some scholars are of the view that the history of Nepal goes back to as early as 1500 BC during the Ramayana period. The history of Nepal’s international contacts and relations is long. Hindu mythology and scripts point. Legend has it that there used to exist a powerful kingdom in Nepal's southern plain called Janakpur or Mithila even earlier and its king was Janak, who was famous throughout South Asia for ...

Yuba Nath Lamsal:- It has been almost six months since KP Sharma Oli assumed premiership of Nepal third time, leading the Nepali Congress-CPN (UML) coalition government. Prior to the formation of the Oli-led coalition government, Nepali Congress and UML had reached a seven-point understanding, of which the amendment of the constitution was the principal agenda. The two parties have agreed to amend some provisions of the present constitution. However, they have not yet clearly spelt out what exactly they want in their amendment. It is, however, understood that their primary concern is the electoral system. Our electoral system is of hybrid nature - mixture of first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) and proportionate systems - , which is blamed for political instability and frequent change of governments. This, to some extent, may be true. In the mixed or proportionate electoral system, there is a high probability of a hung parliament in which a political party is less likely to win major...

Yuba Nath Lamsal:- West Asia or the Middle East seems to be on the cusp of new crisis and conflict with the change of regime in Syria. The political developments in Syria emerged in such a lightning speed that surprised all. Even the deposed president Bashar Al Assad and also the rebel troops that forced Assad flee had not thought that the game would be up so quickly. But it happened in the lightning speed and as a result one more dictator has gone out of the political scene in the Middle East. Syria is an important country in the Middle East from geopolitical standpoint. It is located in south-eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea which is a vital lifeline for the trade between Asia and Europe. In other words, Syria used to be popularly known as the intersection of Eastern and Western civilizations. However, Syria now appears to be at the crossroads of its own existence due mainly to a long history of suppressive regime of Assad family and factional fighting among different Islam...