Airport and flight inspections have to be conducted every year, but Nepal has not been able to conduct the tests for the last two years due to Covid-19.

According to preliminary estimates by the agriculture ministry, 325,258 tonnes of ready-to-harvest paddy on 85,580 hectares have either submerged or swept away in seven provinces.

The budget was in limbo for three months for lack of a civil aviation minister who chairs the board.

Losses could be in billions of rupees as heavy rains damage paddy crops across the country.

The hotel industry has posted the highest-ever losses in the last fiscal year ended mid-July.

The indigenous aromatic rice is not grown on a large scale, and Nepal has been importing it from India.

The main peak is 8,163 metres high, and the mountaineering fraternity has lauded the climbers for making it to the ‘true summit’.

The government has allowed the mothballed gambling houses to reopen after remaining shuttered for one and a half years due to virus restrictions.

Nepal throws away quarantine requirement and resumes on-arrival visas, in a move hailed by entrepreneurs as much-needed respite for the virus-ravaged industry.

The Asian Development Bank has revised down its forecast for Nepal’s economic growth to 4.1 percent from the previous 5.1 percent.

The budget may be enough to procure 350,000 tonnes, still 50,000 tonnes short of the desired 400,000 tonnes, officials said.

How the country’s economy fares in the coming months will depend, to a large degree, on whether it can avoid a third virus wave and maintain political harmony.

Political, legal and technical issues have prevented the brand new locomotives that Nepal bought from India from coming into operation—on a new track.

Airport surveillance and radar flight inspections have to be conducted every year, but it has not happened for two years due to Covid-19.

At a time when the government is facing a financial gridlock, the Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre getting invalid could spell a catastrophe, experts warn.