Government Of Nepal Research Articles

Application of big Data in e-Governance

Nepal is moving towards digitization. In Nepal federal, province and Local government are steadily moving towards digitizing all the government departments, scheme and services. e-Government is defined as an effort created, managed and implemented by public entities to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve delivery of public services and increase public and democratic participation. Three tier government of Nepal is moving towards achieving good governance through e-governance and utilization of big data for decision making and predication. The spread of e governance initiatives has had a positive impact on the quality of governance. Geographical, social, & economic disparities are the biggest barriers for full-fledged e-governance. Illiteracy and IT Illiteracy, lack of ICT infrastructure, security and privacy of personal and financial data are other constraints. The aim of this paper is to identify the application and utilization of big Data to Transform Government to e-Government, the issues, challenges and obstacles ahead. The study provides a framework for e-governance in Nepal by analyzing the its essential application and role in achieving good governance using big data.

Air Pollution Airshed Map of the Chaurjahari Model City, Rukum West, Karnali, Nepal

Chaurjahari area of the Rukum West District of the Karnali Province is one of the proposed model cities of the Government of Nepal, being developed to manage the unbalanced, rapid, haphazard, and uncontrolled urbanization in Nepal. While the model city plans to integrate physical, social, economic, and other anticipated urban facilities, no necessary thoughts on the protection of air quality seem to be given. The present study has been conceived to understand the meteorological implications of air pollution transport and the formation of pollutant fields over Chaurjahari City using weather and chemical transport modeling. The meteorological fields and pollution transport were simulated with the Advanced Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-ARW) modeling system and an Eulerian Chemical Transport Model (CTM), respectively. The WRF simulated fields displayed a strong diurnal pattern with windless conditions throughout the early morning to late morning hours, whereas, strong winds accompanied the significant up and downndrafts in the afternoon. Similarly, the pollution dispersion simulation revealed that the city area remains stagnated blanketing the city area from early morning to noontime deteriorating air quality. However, in the afternoon time, local meteorological flows over the area generally organize pollutants transport towards the northern and northeastern high mountainous region reducing air pollution but risking deposition of pollutants in the mountain glaciers. Such deposition of pollutants over the mountains may accelerate the melting of glaciers and snow enhancing the effects of climate change.

Efforts of Nepal's Least Developed Countries (LDC) Graduation and Its Challenges

The primary objectives of this study are to examine the initiatives undertaken by the government of Nepal for LDC graduation, identify challenges faced during process, and discuss the potential impact of graduation. This study is based on qualitative analysis of secondary data obtained from diverse domestic and international sources. Major sources include literature reviews, government policies, reports, and international declarations. Comprehensive desk review on the issue shows that Nepal has undertaken a strategic plan for LDC graduation, prioritizing investments in human capital, infrastructure, and healthcare, while addressing income disparities. Nepal has already achieved two requirements; HAI and EVI, and Nepal fell significantly short of the LDC graduation threshold of a per capita GNI. The plan includes achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and progressing from a lower-middle income to an upper-middle-income nation by 2030.Despite progress, Nepal faces challenges in achieving graduation, including political instability, governance issues, and environmental vulnerabilities. The country lags in good governance rankings, which could hinder its development efforts. Nepal's commitment to SDGs is seen as a potential driver for LDC graduation, focusing on sustainability, gender equality, clean energy, job creation, and economic development. Nepal aims to become a high-income country by 2043, emphasizing poverty reduction, trade balance improvement, and overall quality of life enhancement. Leaving the LDC category will bring opportunities but also challenges, including the loss of special market access that was provided to the least developed countries like Nepal. Other challenges may involve growing trade and market capacity and strengthening the global competitiveness of internal production. Internally, intersectional variations of inequalities and poverty among and between regions, castes and ethnic groups in Nepal may generate challenges meeting LDC graduations and its sustainability.

Measurement of Value Added Tax (VAT) Efficiency of Nepal

VAT is indirect tax, becoming major sources of Government revenue worldwide. VAT is paid in an effort to uplift the tax collection efficiency in order to recover their budget deficit and enhance the economic stability. But the efficiency of VAT collection has played negative roles like standard VAT rate, threshold, list of tax exempted or zero rate goods and services, tax evasion, political commitment, stable government etc. This research has taken secondary data from Government’s authentic publication from 2010/011 to 2020/021. All these data were analyzed on the helps of trend analysis, VAT to GDP ratio, VAT efficiency ratio and C-efficiency ratio. All the indicators have been found positive. The collection of VAT and GDP appear in increasing trend. The increasing trend of VAT is higher than GDP. The VAT to GDP ratio reaches from 3.95 to 11.84, VAT efficiency ratio extends from 30.38 to 91.12 and average C-efficiency ratio of the study period 64.7. The studied indicators proved that VAT has improving collection efficiency, increasing trend of collection and improving in role on GDP on Nepalese economy. From all these, VAT should be more income generative in the future and help to minimize the budget deficiency of Nepal Government.

Alternative Teaching Method Policies during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Effectiveness

Alternative teaching methods is a planned and organized activity which operates for alternative teaching and learning. During the COVID-19 pandemic period, the education system was highly affected and students were unable to acquire education in schools. To cope with this situation, the Nepal government released the Student Learning Facilitation Guide, 2077 to support on education system and help student getting education from home. Hence, the paper aims to examine the challenges and effectiveness of alternative teaching methods in Nepal. For this purpose, the research has been carried out with explanatory and descriptive research design. The necessary information for this study was accumulated mainly from secondary sources.

The Role of Government Auditing for Combating Corruption and Promoting Integrity in Nepal

The purpose of this article is to analyze the role of government auditing for corruption control and promoting integrity in the public administration of Nepal. This article utilizes content analysis that relies on a systematic literature review of secondary sources from relevant various sources, employing content analysis as the main research strategy. In terms of corruption control, Nepal's government auditing has been playing a crucial role in both preventive and promotional efforts, as well as corrective arrangements. Nevertheless, preventive actions are not always executed. The conclusions show that the government auditing has a major impact on fighting against corruption through Office of the Auditor General Nepal. This study also discovered that the amount of corruption and government performance had a substantial impact on governance. However, this article suggests that the competence of the auditor should be improved for making more responsible in identifying fraud and exposing corruption activities. Thus, if auditing is to play a more prominent role in the fight against corruption, auditing standards shall include specific requirements relating to control corruption, government auditors must co-operate and exchange information with other investigating agencies, auditing techniques should be made more robust to detect corruption, and the auditing profession must embrace effective preventive measures such as anticorruption recognitions and certifications. The article’s findings strongly support the promotion of good governance and the utilization of government auditing and its recommendations to enhance transparency and accountability in Nepal's governance, benefiting political parties, governments, civic organizations, and other stakeholders.

Assessment of Toxic Heavy Metal Content in Children Toys

The children toys are the most favorable things for children to play. But these children toys are not safe from toxic chemicals too. There is presence of different toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead, barium, chromium, zinc etc. The standard value for different heavy metals is set up by the government of Nepal that came into effective from July 15, 2017. The standard was set up for the 12 toxic heavy metals as cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, zinc, antimony, arsenic, barium, bisphenol A, bromine, selenium and phthalates. The study was focused on the study of the compliance of toxic heavy metals in children toys with the national standard. For the study total 52 toys were collected from different places of Nepal: Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Chitwan, Janakpur and Nepalgunj from the local vendors to the supermarkets. The toys were generally made up of plastic, rubber, metal, foam etc. After the collection and sampling of the toys they were tested in the lab of Nepal Handicraft Association of Nepal Bureau of Standard and Metrology (NBSM) by the X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) technology. Among the 52 toys, no any heavy metals were detected in 15 toys and 37 toys were detected with multiple toxic heavy metals. The heavy metals detected in the toys were lead, cadmium, bromine, chromium, zinc and barium. Even most of the detected result is under the compliance it is very serious issue that the non-compliance result of heavy metals like lead is very much more (4688 ppm) than the standard value (90 ppm) in the toy: tortoise. In the same way, 22 children toys have the labelling and rest do not have the labelling. But the labelled children toys don’t have the labelling about the chemical safety. Though the national standard has been formulated the local or the parents themselves are unaware about the toxic heavy metals present in the toys. As well there has raised a big confusion in the standard of the toxic heavy metals as the new standard has been published omitting the standard of the heavy metals as phthalates, BPA, bromine and zinc. Thus, these points should be considered in order to implement the standard effectively and to save the children from the chemical hazards.

Financial Performance Analysis of Public Enterprises (PEs) in Nepal

The main objective of this study was to analyze the financial performance of Public Enterprises in Nepal. PEs in Nepal was incorporated for socio economic development of the country. There has been found 44 PEs in Nepal currently some of them incurred loss. On the basis of these, it is argued that financial performance of PEs in Nepal is weak. This study was carried out on the helps of trend analysis, profitability ratio and turnover ratio. Twelve years financial data were taken from publications of Ministry of Finance, Nepal Government and research articles, etc. All the secondary data were analyzed on quantitative approach with descriptive methods. The analysis showed revenue increased slowly on the basis of base year 2010/011 in 12 years. Similarly profit has found fluctuate over the study period between-0.524 to 7.323 times of base year profit 2010/011. The net profit margin ratio and return on shareholders’ net worth has not found satisfactory level. Total assets and net fixed assets turnover ratio have shown poor performance in assets utilization of PEs Nepal. The turnover ratio massaged that, there is a chances of enhancing financial performance of PEs Nepal by proper utilization of assets for inducing profitability position of PEs. The management of PEs should enhanced the financial performance of organization by the helps of budget as a means of controlling devices on activities of the PEs.

Awareness of People on Functions of Local Government in Nepal

The article aims to investigate local people's awareness level of the functions of local government in Nepal and identifies the primary factor contributing to raising awareness. The author analyzed 2020 social inclusion survey data using SPSS software, performing a Chi-square test and logistic regression. Results show a high association between gender and awareness level, and development plans are the most significant contributor to increasing awareness levels. Researcher has found that the overall awareness level of people in Nepal is moderate. The author only investigates awareness level and contributing factors of awareness in this article.

Gender Based Knowledge on the Reservation System in Nepal

The reservation system encourages equity under the law, which upholds the rights and duties of impoverished populations, making it a democratic decision. However, public awareness is essential for effectively implementing and exercising the reservation system. So, this study analyses the relationship between gender and knowledge of a reservation system using data from the Social Inclusion Survey conducted by Nepal Government in 2020. The author used SPSS software and conducted parametric and non-parametric tests, including Chi-square and binary logistic regression. Through this analysis, it is found that there is a close relationship between gender and knowledge of the reservation system because the p-value of the Chi-Square test is 0.00. Nevertheless, the logistic regression result proved that people have moderate knowledge of the reservation system and suggested that education and training initiatives are needed to improve people's awareness of the reservation system.

How Ghãtu Folk Dance Performance Promotes Tourism Industry in Nepal

This paper analyzes how Ghā̃tu promotes the tourism industry in Nepal. For conservation, the Nepal government does not seem to have promoted such cultural activities of the indigenous people that they are on the verge of extinction. Ghā̃tu, the nation’s cultural heritage, has several miraculous performances based on spiritual practices that attract tourists. The study attempts to make this Ghā̃tu folk dance performance one of the best sources of entertainment for tourists and domestic visitors to enhance the nation's economy. The shaman tradition followed by this cultural activity, as the severing of the dancing girls, is another exciting activity that attracts the audience. So, every tourist should visit Nepal mostly to see such a performance once. The study’s findings show that many Ghãtu villages have not been considered tourist spots. And Nepal is not a popular tourist destination like France and Germany. Therefore, this paper proposes to make the Ghā̃tu village’s one of the most unavoidable tourist spots, which help sprout the tourism industry and help enhance the sustainable development of the nation. I have employed performance and semiotic theories developed by Schechner and Chandler and ritual theory.

Impact Study of the Hetauda-Dhalkewar-Inaruwa Transmission Line on the Operation of Integrated Nepal Power System

Despite Nepal’s abundant hydroelectric resources, a substantial disparity exists between its electricity supply and demand. This discrepancy is exacerbated by the absence of high-voltage transmission lines, hindering efficient power evacuation from a handful of generating plants. This not only incurs financial losses for the utility but also compromises the reliability of the power supply. A prime example is the protracted delay in the construction of the 576 KM long Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa 400kV double-circuit Transmission Line, primarily due to challenges posed by local residents unwilling to relinquish their land.The Integrated Nepal Power System (INPS) heavily relies on power generation concentrated in the central mid-hills region. The construction of the Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa (HDITL) 400kV double-circuit Transmission Line is crucial for routing power to industrialize these areas, potentially bolstering the national GDP and generating employment opportunities. Furthermore, it is essential to connect the current hydropower output of around 2300 MW to the INPS system via a high-voltage transmission line to maximize its utilization. The HDITL project not only reduces line losses but also enhances grid stability. It facilitates energy export and direct transmission of high-generation power, such as the 456 MW from Upper Tamakoshi, thus saving approximately 400 MW of power and preventing losses for both the Government of Nepal (GoN) and the Nepal Electricity Authority. This research not only calculates the reduction in power and energy losses with the commissioning of HDITL but also assesses its monetary benefits. Utilizing INPS data and Digsilent Power Factory 15.1 for power flow analysis, the study estimates that HDITL can prevent a power loss of about 26.276 MW. Furthermore, it demonstrates that HDITL significantly improves the total generation power factor in INPS, from 0.88 to 0.99, and enhances the voltage profile, underscoring its critical role in Nepal’s energy infrastructure development.

Website accessibility evaluation of the federal government of Nepal

Website accessibility evaluation of the federal government of Nepal

Contribution of Micro-Enterprises in Nepalese Economy

Micro-enterprises in Nepal are vital, fueling employment, GDP growth, exports, and more. In this context, this paper aims to deal with investment, income and employment (IIE) analysis of Micro-enterprises in Nepal. Using descriptive statistics and multiple regression model, the study has employed cross-sectional data set collected from enterprises survey in the Ward No.14 of Kathmandu Metropolitan City. In the survey, the sample size was 30 small enterprises including tea stall, sweets, haircutting, meat shops, and vegetables. In the enterprises, high investment that is 80 percent have generated high income level that is multiple times of investment in retail enterprises, except hair cutting, meat shops, boutique, sweets and vegetables. In employment generation, all enterprises have positive implications. Besides, the model shows positive relationship between income, investment and employment. However, it is statistically insignificant because p value is greater than 0.05. However, in real life, this is significant because the main attractive investment fields are hair-cutting and meat shops. It is clear that investment output depends on the presence of such business units in their vicinity. The relationship between income and investment is statistically insignificant (p-value 0.416 > 0.05), and the same is true for income and employment (p-value 0.445 > 0.05). The number of employees and the type of business are closely related (p-value 0.000 to 0.01). Therefore, the micro-enterprises are a prominent economic activity to generate self-employment, income generation and promoting small scale investment. This study result significantly contributes on generic perception of the policy makers on enterprises development statistically to continue enterprises development programs and policy of the government of Nepal and Kathmandu Metropolitan city to boost up local economy as well as national economy. Furthermore, the study result provides a valuable lesson learnt to create doing business environment of micro-enterprises within Kathmandu for building a strong local supply and value chain system rather than prohibition policy.

Exploring the Potentiality of Ecotourism in Betana Simsar Community Forest, Koshi Province, Nepal

The Government of Nepal has focused on ecotourism activities within community forests; but not all community forests are equally potential for ecotourism. This paper mainly focuses on available facilities and services regarding ecotourism development; and tries to analyse local people’s perception of ecotourism promotion as well as visitor’s satisfaction in the Betana Simsar Community Forest of Morang district in Koshi province, eastern Nepal to explore the potentiality of ecotourism. This research was based mainly on household survey (n=53), visitor’s interviews (n=96), key informant survey (n=10) and observation of available infrastructure related to ecotourism development. The study revealed that rich biodiversity and natural scenery of the wetland have attracted more than four million visitors annually. The income received from the tourism has not only supported management of the community forest but also provided employment to eight local people and supported local livelihoods. Two third of the visitors were found satisfied with the available facilities and natural beauty of the area. These facts show the opportunities for ecotourism development in Betana Simsar community forest; however, lack of institutional collaboration among different agencies has been identified major limitation for converting this potentiality into the reality.

Validation of maternal recall of number of antenatal care visits attended in rural Southern Nepal: a longitudinal cohort study

ObjectivesThis study aimed to examine the validity of maternal recall of total number of antenatal care (ANC) visits during pregnancy and factors associated with the accuracy of maternal recall.DesignThis was...

Spatiotemporal distribution of foot-and-mouth disease in Nepal between 2019 and 2021

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease affecting cloven-hoofed livestock. It is caused by the FMD virus (FMDV), which has seven distinct serotypes (O, A, C, SAT I, SAT II, SAT III, and Asia 1). In Nepal, FMD is a prevalent and economically important livestock disease, with hundreds of outbreaks yearly across different regions. However, there is limited understanding of the recent epidemiological trends of FMD in the past few years in Nepal. This study aims to analyze the spatial and temporal distribution of FMD in Nepal from 2019 to 2021. The FMD and TADs Investigation Laboratory, under the Government of Nepal, conducts annual risk-based surveillance of FMD in the country. The nonstructural protein (NSP) serosurveillance and serotyping (for outbreak confirmation) data from this laboratory were used for the study. The samples were collected either by the laboratory staff or were sent to the laboratory. Data analysis and mapping were performed using Epi info version 7.2.5.0 and QGIS version 3.22.5, respectively. Our findings revealed that 37.65% of samples (n = 417) tested positive for serotyping. The highest number of positive cases occurred in March–April, followed by December. Geographically, the Terai region had the most positive cases, followed by hills and mountains. The positivity rate for serotyping did not significantly vary by animal species (p > 0.05). Serotype O was the dominant serotype in all years, accounting for 98% of cases, while serotype A was found in only 2% of serotype-positive samples. In NSP serosurveillance, out of 3216 samples tested, 15.07% (474/3146; 95% CI, 13.86–16.36) tested positive. NSP seropositivity varied significantly by year (p < 0.001) but not by eco-zone (p > 0.05). In conclusion, FMD remains endemic in Nepal, with a consistent epidemiological pattern except that the Asia 1 serotype was not detected in the past years. We recommend expanding FMD surveillance activities to high-risk areas and collecting data on potential risk factors driving FMD infection in the country. This will enable the implementation of suitable control measures.

Using the Journey to Health and Immunization (JTHI) Framework to Engage Stakeholders in Identifying Behavioral and Social Drivers of Routine Immunization in Nepal

Although the Government of Nepal has achieved high and sustained childhood vaccination coverage, reaching under-immunized and zero-dose children requires different approaches. Behavioral science offers promise in better understanding the drivers of vaccination and development of more effective programs; however, the application of behavioral science to immunization programs in Nepal is nascent. Through the Behavioral Science Immunization Network, JSI, UNICEF Nepal, and Dhulikhel Hospital–Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences established a Behavioral Science Center to engage a diverse group of stakeholders in increasing the capacity of practitioners to use behavioral science in immunization programming. As a result of the engagement during formative research, government stakeholders requested and applied tools from behavioral science to solve different immunization challenges. Of particular value was the use of the Journey to Health and Immunization framework, which helped stakeholders identify behavioral and social drivers of zero-dose communities in Kathmandu. Our experience in Nepal demonstrates that there is strong demand for approaches and tools from behavioral science to use in relation to immunization and that this type of engagement model is effective for generating demand for and strengthening capacity to use behavioral science approaches.

Nepal’s School Education: Insights of Basic Education in Bagmati Province

Nepal has made significant progress in school education after 1990s. The government of Nepal has been working towards improving access to school education and enhancing the quality education across the country. Regarding the status of school education, this study has been conducted to examine the present growth trends of school education focusing on basic education in Nepal. For this, descriptive research design has been applied to analyze the data. As per the education policy changes, there has found the significance improvement in net enrolment at basic and primary education, expansion of number of schools and skill development of human resources. The study demands that Nepal needs to bring reality base school education policy for better improving school education quality and provide cent percent school education to all school children.

Foreign labour migration in Nepal in relation to COVID-19: analysis of migrants’ aspirations, policy response and policy gaps from disaster justice perspective

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the effectiveness of migration policies in dealing with the challenges that Nepalese migrants faced during this pandemic from a disaster justice perspective. Like in other periods of natural or human-made crises, the Nepal Government brought new policies and programmes to help the victims in their reintegration. In this context, this paper examines what policies and programmes worked and what did not work based on the findings of a large survey conducted among migrants and qualitative information collected during the implementation of a programme on reintegration. The paper highlights that understanding the social vulnerability of migrants is critical to devising policies that could benefit them in such disasters. It demonstrates that socially vulnerable groups are not only disproportionately affected by disasters and are less capable of resilience and recovery; they are also not supported well by public institutions like the government. This situation makes such migrants further vulnerable to poverty, physical exploitation and psychological stresses, which calls for policies and programmes that support them in preparedness and, in the event of a disaster, long-term recovery until they become resilient. This study shows that local governments are in a better position to target the ‘socially vulnerable’ and to implement reintegration programmes.