NCP should learn bitter lessons from the past, keep its house in order and focus on ending corruption and ensuring good governance.

Psychologists Gordon Pennycook and David Rand claim “only unexpected information can filter through to higher stages of processing” because human responses gradually reduce ability to examine reliability of same information and the brain finally learns they are true.  The common citizens do not have the ability to distinguish such misinformation that largely determines its speed, reach, and impact to convince target audience.

As the world is struggling to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, another threat to livelihood has emerged:The plague of locust swarms. By the end of 2019, East Africa was already experiencing the worst locust outbreak. But due to the larger threat of Covid-19, the locust surge went largely unnoticed.

As we increasingly place our faith in big data to solve major problems, the biggest question we face is not what we can do with it, but rather what we are willing to do.

There is no doubt that COVID-19 will result in mass unemployment in non-agricultural sectors. This could bring a vast majority of youths back into agriculture sector.

MUNICH – When a local radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina started a podcasting competition in its community, it was prepared for many contingencies, except one: that the response would overwhelm the station’s server. The initiative was aimed at increasing on-air diversity, and tens of thousands of people wanted in. Groups and individuals from all walks of life submitted more than 370 ideas for podcasts, and 33,000 listeners logged on to vote for them. What started as a one-time experiment will now be a regular feature.

Madan Bhandari is one politician of the Left on whom there has been significant discussion in the mainstream polity of Nepal. And yet, one feels that the narrative is inadequate. Despite all that has been written and said, the very fact that that he led a communist party makes academicians and writers hesitate to properly locate his contributions in Nepal’s 70 years of democratic struggle.

With Nepali parliament unanimously passing the constitution amendment for a new political map in the national emblem, Nepal-India relation is on a new and uncharted territory. The amendment included territories controlled by India since the Sino-India war in 1962, the area known as Kalapani, also inclusive of Lipu Lekh and Limpiyadhura. The constitution revision was passed by over two thirds majority and without any dissent.

Madheshis are angry and worried that the state might deny citizenship to their spouses because a parliamentary committee has endorsed the Citizenship Amendment Bill.  They are angry also because they have been misinformed by politicians and NGO activists about what is there in the Bill.   Lies, propaganda and misinterpretation could breed hate and tear the social fabric, if they are not told the truth on time.

Nepal has been under lockdown for more than three month now due to the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19. Nepal has taken lockdown as a major strategy to control pandemic due to lack of resources and test kits. The government of Nepal has been trying to get enough test kits required to control the pandemic from taking root in the country. As an effort to fulfill that demand, the government initiated procurement effort as well first via the Health Ministry directly through a contract that was awarded to Omni group and recently to Nepal army via government-to-government model. Both procurement done by the government has not been without controversies.