14-MEMBER NEPALI SQUAD FOR ELITE CUP IN UAE Kathmandu, 11 Sept.: Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) Monday retained the squad that won the ICC World Cricket League Division-IV in Malaysia for the upcoming ACC Elite Cup Paras Khadka, Gyanendra Malla, Sharad Vesawkar, Amrit Bhattarai, Shakti Gauchan, Basanta Regmi, Sanjam Regmi, Rahul Kumar BK, Pradeep Airee, Anil Kumar Mandal, Prithu Baskota, Chandra Saud, Binod Das and Subash Khakurel have been retained for the 1 to 12 October Elite Cup in UAE. nnnn CHAUDHARY GROUP CONTINUES TO SPONSOR CRICKET ACTIVITIES Kathmandu, 11 Sept.: Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) and CG Foods Nepal Pvt Ltd Tuesday renewed a five-year Rs.21 million sponsorship deal of the U-19 Tournament soon after Nepal qualified for Group III of the ICC World Cricket League Division IV in Malaysia beating USA. CAN President Tanka Angbuhang and Managing Director of Chaudhary Group Nirvana Chaudhary inked a Memorandum of Understanding. CG Foods Pvt Ltd.will provide Rs 1.8 million annually to conduct boys’ tournament and Rs 900,000 per year for the girls’ events. Sponsors will also provide Rs 1.5 million in kind — T-shirts, trophies, medals and certificates in the regional as well as national tournaments. Wai Wai, a product of Chaudhary Group, has been sponsoring the U-19 cricket since 2005. Nnnn FIVE NEPALI SCIENTISTS HONOURED Kathmandu, 11 Seot.: : The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) has recognised five members of Nepal Agricultural Research Council with the first annual BGRI Gene Stewardship Award, The Himalayan Times writes. The scientists are Madan Bhatta, Sarala Sharma, Dhruba B Thapa, Nutan Gautam and Deepak Bhandari. The BGRI Gene Stewardship Award recognises a researcher or team of researchers serving a national breeding programme or other national institutions. Award recipients demonstrate excellence in the development, multiplication and/or release of rust resistant wheat varieties through appropriate means that encourage diversity and complexity of resistance, promote durability of materials and help implement BGRI’s goal of responsible gene deployment and stewardship. “The BGRI encourages the use of durable, long-lasting Ug99 resistant varieties,” Sarah Evanega, associate director of Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project, and adjunct professor of plant breeding at Cornell University said. “Despite limited resources, the Nepali team has deployed such varieties. In addition to durable resistance, they also offer higher yields than existing varieties.This is the kind of wheat farmers want to grow,” she added. In the fast-moving battle against the Ug99 stem rust fungus, wheat varieties that rely only on one line of defence can be quickly overcome by the rapidly evolving Ug99 pathogen. Since Ug99 was discovered in Uganda in 1999, eight different mutations have been identified and each one of these new races is able to overcome different combinations of resistance genes. It takes much longer for breeders to develop and test new varieties than it does for Ug99 to mutate. So, to achieve any long-lasting defence, breeders are encouraged to release new varieties that do not rely on a single major gene for resistance. Combinations of multiple major and/or multiple minor resistance genes can slow down Ug99’s predations. The Nepal research team has released three such varieties: Vijay meaning “victory”, Francolin 1, and Danphe 1. These varieties also offer resistance to other rust diseases, including leaf and stripe rust. Nepal is now fully prepared to face the possible arrival of stem rust Jg99 because the resistant varieties are already in the farmers’ fields. Madan Bhatta of the Nepal team said, “The Nepali wheat team feels honoured to receive the prestigious BGRI Gene Stewardship Award 2012. “This award has great significance as it is in the name of Noble Laureate Dr Norman Borlaug, who fought against world hunger. Dr Borlaug’s example inspires us to fight against deadly wheat rusts. Nnnn LOANS AGAINST SHARES DROP Kathmandu, 11 Sept.::The continuous decline in loans against shares floated by commercial banks seems to have slowed down with the bullish share prices as the fiscal year approached the end, The Himalayan Times reports. In fiscal year 2011-12, total loans floated by banks against collateral of non-government securities had declined by 3.8 per cent, according to data published by Nepal Rastra Bank. In the previous fiscal year, the amount of such loans had gone down by 23.3 per cent. Commercial banks extended loans worth Rs 4.8 billion by end of fiscal year which amounted to Rs 5.8 billion in the beginning –– July, 2011. In July, 2010, banks portfolio contained loans worth Rs 6.75 billion. The steady decline in share prices coupled with escalating interest rate and the central bank enforcing margin on such loans had squeezed the loans. However, following the bull-run at the Nepse from mid-April, the amount of loans forwarded against securities as collateral has grown. Though the Nepse index had slumped by more than 15 per cent by the ninth month, in the last three months it surged by about 30 per cent. The benchmark index was then down near 300 points in mid-April which rested near 400 points at the end of the fiscal year. The amount of loans against shares increased by seven per cent in the last month as compared to the 11th month. “The appreciation in share prices encouraged investors to seek loans to buy shares,” said general secretary of Nepal Investors’ Forum Raj Kumar Timilsina. “Number of Initial Public Offerings in the later part of the year also got investors to borrow from financial institutions to apply for loans pledging shares,” he added. Even though regulators have opened up margin financing based on brokers’ guarantee even during blank transfer of the shares, not all brokers and financial institutions have come aboard, since June. “We are still holding talks with Nepal Bankers’ Association, Nepal Development Bankers’ Association, and Nepal Finance Company Association to design a working plan so that all brokers and financial institutions get uniform procedures for margin financing,” said president of Stock Brokers’ Association of Nepal Anjan Raj Paudyal. After much struggle, investors had convinced the capital market regulator ––Securities Board of Nepal –– and banking regulator –– Nepal Rastra Bank –– to allow margin lending based on brokers’ guarantee even during blank transfer. “If all brokers and financial institutions start providing margin finance then investors will get loans more easily and at competitive interests,” pointed out Paudyal. Financial institutions are charging 12 per cent to 16 per cent as interest rate for loans against shares, and margin is determined by the institutions themselves. Nnnn MEDIA GOOGLE “Responding to a Supreme Court (SC) order to furnish clarifications in a contempt of court case filed by Secretary Bindra Hada over the government´s non-implementation of the court´s order to stay her transfer from the Ministry of Irrigation, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai told the court that he has not received any such order from the court.” (Report in Republica, 11 Sept.) Nnnn CoAS RANA FLOATS AMBITIOUS ISION PLAN FOR ARMY DEVELOPMENT Kathmandu, 11 Sept : Newly appointed Chief of Army Staffs (CoAS) Gaurav Shumsher Rana on Monday floated six-point ambitious vision statements for overall development of the army including organizational reform and modernization, Kama; Pariyar writes in Republica. Addressing about a 1,000 officers of various ranks at the Army Headquarters a day after assuming the office, Rana unveiled short-term, mid-term and long term plans on effective administration, timely career developments of staff and advancement in international relation. He said he would start his term by interacting with soldiers serving in remote districts and asked them to be more responsive and flexible to meet the vision during his term. He said the 10-year master plan had been forwarded to the government and its implementation will begin once it recieves the official nod. A press statement issued by NA´s Directorate of Public Relations (DPR) said Rana requested the army to focus on nation building process despite the challenges ahead. “I believe that I will continue to reccieve your support in realizing the common goals of protecting the country and the people and completion of tasks beneficial for the army," Rana said. "Interest of Nepal, Nepali people and the Nepali Army will be my only goal." CoAS Rana assured to embark on reform process for flexible, responsive and adaptive structure of the organization by reviewing existing security policy and principles at the earliest. He also focused on ending the integration of Maoists combatants according to the verdict of the people and the constitutional boundary, and create an environment for an inclusive army with women-friendly structures. Pointing out to the increasing challenges in security sectors, Rana said, “description of national security and conflicts have been changing and we need to revise our traditional description of conflict as human security has become ever more challenging.” He also announced his intentions to develop college of combat and unified army training center in to "All Arms Battle School" and begin the process to establish National Defense University. “We need to develop the administrative and logistic system for both war and peace," Rana said. "The current professional career development process will be reviewed and career development based on ´meritocracy´ will be implemented immediately." “The lack in mutual trust and confidence between commanders and lower ranked soldiers was because of the weak leadership, so we need to find out a better way to address this problem,” he clarified. He also focused on the development and promotions of cottage industry and review of welfare policies and raise the living standard of the army personnel and upgrades in the health, education standards. Nnnnn ________________________________________ INTER-AGENCY PACT MUST FOR KUWAIT BOUND HUSE MAIDS Kathmandu, 11 Sept The government is soon to impose a ban on the long-running practice of recruiting domestic maids for Kuwait through individual channels, and introduce a system that makes the involvement of agencies in both Nepal and Kuwait manadory in the recruitment process, Prabhakar Ghmere writes in Republica.. Officials said the switch is being made mainly to make sure that aspirant women workers do not fall prey to false promises and their rights in the workplace are protected. “The existing system of recruitment of domestic maids through individual contacts is the major cause of the host of problems facing maids in Kuwait. So, we are soon to make the signing of job agreements between employment agencies in both countries mandatory,” Purna Chandra Bhattarai, director general of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), told Republica. "It will enable us to promptly identify and deal with cases of violence and different forms of exploitation faced by Nepali maids in Kuwait." Kuwait, already home to around 50,000 workers (some 23,000 are officially recorded), is the key destination for Nepali housemaids. DoFE data shows that a total of 24,575 workers, most of them housemaids, left for Kuwait during fiscal year 2011/12. “As the number of domestic workers leaving for Kuwait is increasing every year through insecure ways, we are enforcing a system which will be instrumental in protecting them from different forms of exploitation by their employers,” said Bhattarai. Existing Kuwaiti laws don´t incorporate the rights of domestic workers, leaving them vulnerable to different forms of violence. Worse still, the existing practice of recruiting housemaids through individual channels is adding to their woes as individual brokers do not take any responsibility in case of problems in the workplace. Individual brokers tend to go out of contact from DoFE and the workers once they send the workers to overseas destinations. “Cases of exploitation of Nepali maids will automatically decrease once agency to agency agreements are introduced because under this system we can hold the agencies of both countries accountable if any exploitation or violence is meted out to Nepali maids in Kuwait,” Bhattarai said. He also said the proposed new system will make it easy for the Nepali embassy in Kuwait to deal with cases of mistreatment of maids by employers. According to Bhattarai, more than 75 percent of housemaids receiving permission from DoFE are headed for Kuwait. In an effort to mitigate exploitation by employers and violence against housemaids, and discourage the sending abroad of under-age female workers on forged passports, the government imposed a ban a month ago on the despatch of female workers aged below 30 to the Gulf. 106 victimized maid returned from UAE, 7 sheltering at embassy Meanwhile, 106 Nepali domestic servants subjected to violence and exploitation by employers were repatriated by the Nepalese Embassy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over three years ending the second week of August. The DoFE stated that seven maids who were also mistreated and tortured by their employers, are still sheltering at the embassy, waiting to be flown back home.“ "Like in other Gulf countries, housemaids in the UAE are also subjected to torture, sexual violence and exploitation over wages by their employees," said Bhattarai. Nnnn ________________________________________