Elitism has an inverse relationship with the underprivileged and marginalized. However, many people often rise to the ranks of elitism championing the cause of the underserved and downtrodden. But most of them transform into defenders of elites or establishments in no time. Power and influence play hide and seek with them. This mostly coincides with the rise and fall of political establishments and cultural and social forces of the day.

Snakebite is a serious cause of disability and death in mostly poor, rural and hard-to-reach communities worldwide. Though just 250 of 3000-odd species of snakes are medically important, their impact can be devastating: Across the globe, snakebite envenoming is reported to cause the death of up to 138 000 people annually, while up to three times that number are estimated to suffer amputation, physical or psychological disability. The need to take action is clear, and core to the principle of leaving no one behind.

LONDON – After three days of pomp and ceremony that presented an image of a seemingly unchanging Britain, US President Donald Trump has now departed London. But beneath the veneer of pageantry, Britain is consumed not only by a stalled Brexit and the unending debate about it, but also by a far more profound crisis of identity: a struggle to rediscover what it is to be British.

With over one hundred languages spoken within the territory of 1,47,181 square kilometers, Nepal has faced the problem of accommodating lingual concerns of various ethnic communities. The constitution has recognized all mother tongues as national language and granted fundamental right to the citizens to pursue primary education in mother tongue.

I am not a fan of surprises, but sometimes these surprises are fun. One such surprise happened to me few weeks back.  The surprise was one session of pedicure.  I have to accept that it was an opportunity to experience the pleasures of modern pedicure for the first time in my life.  When I was asked if I wanted to participate in this experience, at first, I was not sure and was almost tempted to deny, but at the end I accepted it.

In 1986, Alfred Spector, president of Transarc Corporation, co-authored a paper comparing bridge building to software development. One of the key takeaways from his paper is while bridges fail, it catches the national headlines. We saw that happening with our own ‘Pappu Construction.’  In the paper, he puts an argument about the difference between software failures and bridge failures.

When bizarre things happen, people in Nepal often tend to say ‘this is Nepal’ meaning that anything can happen here and nothing is impossible. This seems to hold true in many cases. This is Nepal and we still don’t seem to be politically stable. This is Nepal and so many political parties are here. This is Nepal and we still don’t have water from Melamchi.

It would not be pragmatic for Nepal to expect BRI projects to be built entirely on Chinese grants. Nepal can expect more grants and less loans but not absolute grants

When two elephants make love, the Tibetans get squeezed out from India and, it will not be a matter of surprise if the problem is shifted to Nepal

The key to deterrence in the cyber era is to acknowledge that one size does not fit all