Introduction In the midst of the dominant formal economy, the often neglected informal sector exerts considerable influence, with women playing essential roles within its complex network of livelihoods. Nepal’s informal economy is estimated to contribute approximately NPR 2.2 trillion annually out of the country’s total economy of NPR 5.381 trillion which is 42.66% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Out of the total employed population of 7.1 million people, approximately 84.6 percent (6 million) are involved in informal work. A significant portion, 90.5 percent, of women workers in Nepal ar ..read more

On April 7, Rwanda commemorated 30 years of genocide against the Tutsi. The hundred-day killing spree in 1994 took away 800,000 lives. The ongoing carnage in Gaza that began from October 2023 can also give people a perspective on how worse this would have been thirty years ago. The international community could not do much and stayed just a spectator when rampant killing, rape and violence occurred shaking an entire generation. The world was quiet and let the genocide happen as we are seeing the carnage in Gaza in 2023-24. French President Emmaneul Macaron in a visit to Rwanda in 2021 apologiz ..read more

Introducing the Investment Landscape As the anticipation builds for the Third Nepal Investment Summit (NIS) being held in April 2024, the Government of Nepal is geared up to showcase projects and opportunities to convince investors and bring in foreign direct investment (FDI). Acknowledging that it lacks enough internal resources for development, Nepal’s economic journey hinges significantly towards FDI. FDI can be a vital source of investment in the economy and therefore, through investment summits and policy reforms, the Nepali government aims to convey its potential as an investment-worthy ..read more

The Other View by Sujeev Shakya “I am planning to start a company that will go global.” This was a voice I heard echoing among the Nepali diaspora as I interacted with many young students and professionals. One of the key features of the people I met was how they treated themselves as global citizens. They did not have the nationalism of the diaspora politicians embedded in them and were rather focused on setting up big dreams and ambitions. The voice of the Nepali diaspora used to be generally controlled by politically affiliated people who carried the dirty Nepali politics of entitlement, ma ..read more

How unequal is Nepal in terms of income and wealth distribution? Economic Growth is a measure of the changes in aggregate or average income of an economy. While economic growth essentially captures the growth and performance of an economy, it fails to capture the overall picture leaving out the degrees of inequalities which shapes out the actual levels of growth in a broader perspective. There has been a significant economic growth in the case of Nepal as well, with the GDP growth rate estimated to be 3.9% in 2024 by World Bank; but it does not necessarily capture the overall growth of the ent ..read more

Background Nepal was at the forefront of the sustainability curve since the 1970s with zero-emission public transportation – trolley buses and Safa tempos. Backed by abundant electricity and planned infrastructure, trolley buses were the embodiment of accessibility and equity to the general people. Safa tempos showed that reducing air pollution doesn’t necessitate major technological investments. These initiatives were supported by tax cuts and loan incentives, resulting in the world’s largest fleet of public Electric Vehicles (EV) at the time. However, unaddressed battery/technical flaws and ..read more

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes international trade as a catalyst for promoting inclusive economic growth, alleviating poverty, and attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, for the world’s least developed countries (LDCs), international trade can be challenging let alone sustainable trade. Furthermore, the low participation of LDCs in trade has underscored the uncertainty of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These nations face numerous obstacles, including limited access to resources, rising debts, underdeveloped infrastructure, minimal ..read more

Context Without its migrant workers, where would Nepal be? Since the 1990s, increasingly many Nepalis are moving out of the country in pursuit of foreign employment to send money back home. Nepal has reached a critical juncture that calls for introspecting whether Nepal would have been better off or worse off had its migrant workers stayed back. While imagining such kind of counterfactual scenarios requires subjective judgment, realizing the substantial impact of migrant workers’ remittances on the Nepali economy is evident from both household and national levels. This article analyzes how emi ..read more

Environment and Social Governance(ESG) investing traces its roots back to the socially responsible investing movements of the 1960s where investors withdraw stocks based on business activities such as tobacco production or ties to the South African apartheid regime. Today, businesses that champion ESG practices and policies stand out economically and have a greater chance of attracting the attention of partners, investors, and the media. In the contemporary landscape, purchasers are no longer seeing to contract with the least expensive vendors that do the least harm, have the clearest on socia ..read more

Overview Nepal is still largely an agrarian nation with around 62% of total population engaged in agriculture. The agriculture sector contributes to around one-third of the nation’s GDP and provides employment to two third of the population. But, the contribution to overall GDP has declined over time. Agriculture contributed to 36.64% of the GDP which then decreased to 23% by 2022. Similarly, the employment in agriculture has decreased from 73% in 2005 to 62% in 2021. Although the sector still contributes to a significant proportion of the overall GDP and a lot of population is engaged in agri ..read more