ANOTHER BIG 3 EFFORT AT UNDERSTANDING

ANOTHER SUMMIT OF THE BIG THREE SATURDAY
Kathmandu, 11 Feb. The Big Three are holding another round of political discussions Saturday to break a prolonged political impasse that has adversely impacted the conclusion of the peace process and constitution drafting.
Maoist Chairman Prachanda said UCPN (Maoist) and opposition parties NC and UML will make a final effort Saturday to resolve
differences on themes to be included in a constitution that is scheduled to be promulgated 28 May.
Sunday’s third deadline to resolve differences on themes for
incorporation in a basic law will be missed without a
breakthrough in the tripartite summit.
Articles for inclusion in a proposed treaty will then have to be
adopted through cumbersome two-third majority vote if
agreement is elusive Saturday.
“We didn’t work to meet the schedule,” Nilambar Acharya, chairman of the constitution drafting committee confessed.
‘A changed schedule will mount pressure,” Acharya said.
A new schedule has for completing a constitution has tobe drawn up without progress in Saturday’s meet.
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UML POLITBURO MEET UNDERWAY
Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: Discussions in UML politburo started
discussions Friday on a political report to be presented by Chairman Jhalanath Khanal at a meeting of the national representatives that begins 4 to 7 March in the outskirts of the capital.
Another round of discussions will be held next week.
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SAMUEL TAMRAT CONTINUES POLITICAAL DISCUSSIONS
Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: Visiting UN senior official Samuel Tamrat continues political discussions to discuss the delayed twin peace and constitution drafting process with NC Vice-chairman and parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Paudel and UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal Saturday.
Tamrat, who arrived Thursday night for a review visit, held discussions with Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai Friday.
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SHYAM SUNDAR LAL KAKSHAPATI ELECTEDHAN PRESIDENT
Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) Friday ill
elected Shyam Sundar Lal Kakshapati for a two-year perm Friday.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai inaugurated its 41st annual general meet Friday that elected a 18-member executive committee.
BK Shrestha of Radisson Hotel was elected 1st vice-president and Binod Shanker Shrestha of Shanker Hotel 2nd vice-president.
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NEPAL, INDIA OFFICIALS PREPARING INDIAN PM
SINGH’S NEPAL VISIT
Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: Exact dates for the proposed visit of Indian Prine Minister Manmohan Singh haven’t been finalized yet, Indian Ambassador Jayant Prasad said Friday.
But officials of Nepal and India are making detailed preparations for the visit that comes after a four-hour transit visit of Chinese Prime
Minister Wen Jiabao this month.
China and India are competing for influence in Nepal.
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PRESIDENT CONCERNED OVER POSSIBILITY OF FATF BLACKLITING
Kathmandu, 11 Feb.:: President Ram Baran Yadav has expressed serious concern over the possibility of Nepal being blacklisted by the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF), a global body that oversees money laundering issues, for not endorsing three bills related to money
Laundering, Republica reports.
President Yadav expressed his worry over the issue during a meeting with Speaker Subas Nembang at the former´s office at Shital Niwas Friday afternoon.

As per the government´s commitment in international forums, parliament is supposed to endorse three bills -- bill on mutual legal assistance, bill on amendment to laws related to extradition and another bill on eradication of organized crime -- by February 13.

“The president expressed his concern over the issue. I informed him that the parliament secretariat is preparing to endorse the bills by the February 13 deadline,” Nembang told Republica.

Though the bills were registered in the past, the government returned them and registered them again at the parliament secretariat on Wednesday. As the bills will mature only on February 13, the parliament meeting that has been called for the same day will require suspending a parliamentary procedure due to lack of time.

“We will not be able to give 72 hours to lawmakers for registering amendment to the bills and we need to shorten the timeline to around one hour because we will have to endorse the bills the same day,” said an official at the parliament secretariat.

Although parliament amended some of the bills related to the money laundering act in June last year as per FATF requirements, the global body is still pressing the government to endorse the other three bills.

Stating that Nepal´s legal arrangements to check terrorist financing and organized crime are still incomplete, the International Cooperation Review Group of FATF has said it will list Nepal in the high-risk category if the bills are not endorsed by the next week, said officials at Nepal Rastra Bank.

After placing any country in the high-risk category, FATF tells member states to remain alert while doing any business in that country, and it instructs them to stop doing business with any country in the negative list.

FATF suggests to its member countries to formulate laws on mutual legal assistance with a view to stopping terrorist financing and controlling international organized crime. After adopting mutual legal assistance, member countries can share information and evidence about any crime taking place in any of the
member states.
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NEW NRB MECHANISM TO LOWER SPREAD RATE
Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) on Friday indicated that it could backtrack on the policy that allowed banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to set spread rate (gap between deposit and lending rates), saying that the financial sector players largely ignored sentiment of customers in the market, Republica reports.

“We will work out a new mechanism to narrow down the spread rate,” said NRB Governor Dr Yuba Raj Khatiwada, unveiling the mid-term review report of Monetary Policy 2011/12 on Friday. He explained that the new mechanism would create an interest rate corridor, something which will outline a frame of deposit and lending rates, and seek BFIs to operate within that range.

The mid-term review report too says that the new arrangement was necessary mainly because BFIs were setting cut in deposit rate as precondition for lowering lending rates, “whereas reality is they are operating with are too high spread rate” to serve general customers interest.

On the economic front, the mid-term review of Monetary Policy projected rosy picture of the economy and even raised targets the central bank set on major indicators.

For instance, the central bank, which in mid-July targeted to attain balance of payment (BoP) surplus of Rs 5 billion in 2011/12, has now set a target to maintain the surplus at Rs 40 billion. It has also projected the bank deposits to grow at the rate of 15 percent this year, up from its earlier target of 12 percent. The report also says the economy this year would grow by 5 percent as targeted by the government in the budget for this fiscal year.

However, the report paints grim picture for fronts like inflation. The central bank that initially targeted to contain inflation at 7 percent now says it will limit it at 8 percent. NRB has attributed rise in petroleum prices, among others, as reasons behind upward revision on the target.

Though the report lauds encouraging rise in deposits, which expanded by well over Rs 70 billion over the first six months of fiscal year 2011/12 and ended long running liquidity crisis, it says the central bank would fail to achieve the targeted credit growth.

NRB in July had targeted to expand credit by 13.7 percent, but mid-term review suggests it could grow by 13.3 percent only. The situation of commercial banks´ credit flow to the private sector is still dismal. The report shows that commercial banks´ credit to the private sector expanded by mere 3.2 percent over the first six months of the current fiscal year, whereas such credit had grown by 6.5 percent in the same period of last year.

“This is worrying situation,” said Dr Khatiwada, and urged the BFIs to work for the creation of credit demand and issue loans in the productive sectors like agriculture, hydropower, tourism and export-oriented industries. Nonetheless, Khatiwada promised BFIs that the central bank would, if required, mop up excess liquidity by resorting to outright sale of government securities that it holds.

The mid-term review also expresses wariness over adverse impact of the excess flow of loans by the BFIs in the real estate. “Banking and financial system as a whole is still vulnerable to crisis, particularly as asset bubble is yet to burst and real estate market is yet to correct,” reads the report.

Given such situation, the central bank said it has already taken steps to make early warning system effective and to formulate contingency plan for crisis management. “We will have the bank resolution framework, which will have steps of crisis management and ways to safeguard the system, readied by the end of this fiscal year,” reads the report.

As for loans issued to housing, the central bank said it would allow the BFIs to reschedule them.
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FAME AWAITS NEPALI MAN WHO MAY BE WORLD’S SHORTEST





Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: Pilloried by neighbours, laughed at in freakshows and spurned by the women he admired from afar, Chandra Bahadur Dangi has always seen his tiny stature as a curse, AFP reports.
But the 72-year-old Nepali, who claims to stand at just 56 centimetres (22 inches), is on the brink of life change as significant as a lottery win as experts prepare to test his claim to be the shortest man in history.
Until now, Junrey Balawing from the Philippines has held the title of the world’s smallest living man with a height of 59.93 cm.
Guinness World Records experts confirmed last week they are to travel to Dangi’s village in the impoverished southwestern valleys of Dang district to measure the pensioner, who says he weighs just 12 kilos (26 pounds).
If his measurements prove correct, he would eclipse Balawing but would also be the shortest human adult ever documented, taking the accolade from India’s Gul Mohammed, who was measured at 57cm before he died in 1997 aged 40.
Dangi told AFP in his first interview with Western media that recognition at the end of his life would be some compensation for years of hardship he has had to endure.
"I think things will be better now. I hope that I will be famous all over the world," Dangi said at a religious festival in Surunga, a town on the banks of the sacred Kankai river 280 kilometres (174 miles) southeast of Kathmandu.
"I want to visit foreign countries and meet people from around the world."
The pensioner, who was orphaned at 12 and has five normal-sized brothers, says he has never experienced romance and is yet to find his soulmate.
"I was short since my childhood. So, I couldn’t find a woman to marry when I was young. Then I just gave up on the idea of marriage. At this old age, I’m not interested in marriage anymore."
The cause of his stunted growth remains a mystery although many holders of the "world’s shortest man" crown have suffered from primordial dwarfism, a condition which begins to show signs in the womb.
Dangi says relatives would parade him as a freak at fetes and festivals when he was younger, refusing to share with him any of the cash they earned.
"They would treat me as a toy," he told the Kathmandu-based Republica newspaper.
He was brought to the attention of the world last week after Nepali researchers looking into the history of the Dangi people were introduced to him.
"We walked for several hours and reached his home in Purandhara village. He was living with his 35-year-old nephew and his (nephew’s) family," said Mohan Dangi, who led the expedition.
"We invited him to take part in our week-long religious ceremony. To us, it occurred that he could be world’s shortest man."
Dangi, who scrapes a living weaving the "Naamlo", a traditional jute band used for carrying heavy weights, has already become something of a celebrity in southern Nepal.
At the religious festival in Surunga he was smeared in vermilion powder -- which can symbolise power, love or desire in Hindu culture -- as fans queued to greet him, offer him flowers and have their pictures taken with him.
Dangi knows he may have to get used to the attention, as public life beckons.
Another Nepali, Khagendra Thapa Magar, held the record as the world’s shortest man for a year after being measured in 2010 at 67cm.
Magar made television appearances in Europe and the United States and was the official face of Nepal’s tourism campaign, which featured him as the smallest man in a country that is home to the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest.
"After Khagendra was awarded the title of the world’s shortest man, he got a name and fame around the world," the former record holder’s father, Rup Bahadur Thapa Magar, told AFP.
"The Nepali diaspora invited Khagendra to 32 countries around the world and honoured him. I along with my son got an opportunity to travel to America, Hong Kong, London and France among others.
"We will feel proud if Man Bahadur Dangi is designated the world’s shortest man because the title would be back in Nepal."
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Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: Nepal and India exchanged on Friday agenda for the upcoming first-ever Nepal-India energy minister-level talks. New Delhi is hosting the meeting on February 15, the highest mechanism in a tier-three structure of joint secretary, secretary and minister levels to look into water resource issues, AnillGiri writes in The Kathmandu Post..
Nepal has requested India to give a final touch to a long pending Power Development Agreement (PDA), construction of 400KV cross-border transmission corridor to be built between Dhalkebar and Muzaffarpur and importing additional 200MW electricity from India. "We have already forwarded a draft copy of the PDA to the Indian side. We are waiting for their response," said a senior government official. "We need a PDA with India as many Indian investors are vying for developing projects here. In the absence of such an agreement, it is impossible to trade power bilaterally."
In its agenda, the Indian side has proposed the implementation of the Pancheshwar Multi Purpose Project, a part of Nepal-India Mahakali Treaty, and preparing a feasibility study for the Sapta Koshi Multi Purpose Project cum Sun Koshi Diversion scheme. India has proposed talks also on inundation on its side.
Officials at the Energy Ministry have asked Minister Post Bahadur Bogati to seek a political mandate on how to go ahead with the Pancheshwar Multi Purpose Project, PDA with India and India's proposal to build the 200MW Naumure as a gesture of friendship. Energy Minister Bogati is leading the Nepali delegation to the meeting. "He [Bogati] is likely to meet Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on Saturday to solicit his and the Maoist party's view on these pertinent issues before preparing an official stance," the official said. Nepal's prime agenda is to import 200MW power from India to address the huge demand-supply imbalance.
Indian ambassador to Nepal Jayanta Prasad on Friday said an agreement scheduled to be had by India's Ministry of External Affairs and the Power Grid Corporation of India by next week would ease power export to Nepal.
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FORMER KING’S NEW DELHI STAY EXTENDED
Kathmandu, 11 Feb.: Former King Gyanendra Shah has been staying in the Indian Capital for nearly a month. Sagar Timilsina, a close confidante of Shah, has claimed his India stay had been extended owing to some 'private' work. He, refusing to elaborate the matter, said the former king would possibly return to
Kathmandu on Sunday, The Kathmandu Post reports.
Shah arrived in New Delhi with former queen Komal, former crown princess Himani and his grandson Hridayendra on January 11, on his way to a relative's wedding ceremony in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Shah, who returned to Delhi after a week in Jaipur, has not yet flown back to Kathmandu, even though other family members, excepting his wife Komal, returned to Nepal.
Sources have claimed that Shah was trying to meet high-level political leaders in India. However, it could not be confirmed independently. Chief of the International Department of the ruling Indian Congress Party Karan Singh, who is a close relative of Shah, is effortful to arrange his meeting with leaders across the Indian political spectrum, the sources claimed.