Editorial

The economic affairs ministry has warned traders to not consider GST benefits as profit and asking them to pass down the benefits to consumers. The warning comes at the right time when Bhutanese have started feeling the impact of the GST regime in India. Bhutan imports almost everything from India and there will be direct impact on Bhutan from the …

The launching of three courses at the Jigme Wangchuk Power Training Institute is a good initiative and should be welcomed and lauded. There are not many programmes that seem realistic than those launched at Gelephu. In just more than a year, we will Bhutanese who will be able to fix or lay underground cable, transmission lines and maintain transformers. There …

If you throw a stone from a building in Thimphu, it probably would hit a university graduate! This is not because of the presence of the thousands of graduates in the capital attending the National Graduate Orientation Programme, but because of the sheer number of young people finishing college. Given our free education system, most young people tend to complete …

The recent incidents of river level increasing, and exceeding the alert threshold is an indication of the nature’s fury. Located in a fragile ecosystem, Bhutan is prone to natural disasters, especially flash floods, soil erosion, land and mudslides. Glacial lake outburst flood is worst, but not impossible. We have already experienced several in the recent past. There is not much …

The Royal Monetary Authority had reduced the amount of money people can borrow from the banks to buy a car. Now they can avail only 30 percent of the total cost. The decision of the central bank is received with mixed feeling. The rich are laughing at the decision, the poor are thinking why and many are thinking why now. …

Far away from the madding crowd of the capital, at Memelakha, there is much more than the dumped waste that is rotting. The stench is an indication that after decades of planning, we are still grappling with the same problem. Call it a policy failure or implementation, solid waste management, although recognized long ago, is still haunting us. It be …

The last few weeks had been about going electronic. We launched the Point of Sale and the government is piloting the e-procurement systems in four agencies. The developments are a sign of Bhutan moving forward. If we can, why not, we should. But there are problems and we see that it is not going to be a smooth sailing. The …

It has been almost three weeks since a pilot and two crewmembers of the two airlines were tested positive for psychoactive substance and grounded. But not much is being known about the substances they tested positive for. There is a huge public interest, as the incident happened in the aviation sector, which is considered more severe. We can understand the …

Something is not going right in the country today even as our attention is distracted by the war of words between our two giant neighbours in the northern boundary. While many are engaged or closely following the developments that is sensationalized by the regional media, it is good to take stock of what is happening within the boundary. We will …

The health minister Tandin Wangchuk sent a very important message at the most appropriate time when calling on parents to help curb the drug problem. The country is overwhelmed with the rising drug problem. We may not be talking about hardcore drugs, but the substances that Bhutanese- young and old- abuse is bad enough to spoil life. It is increasingly …