Views of a Nepali Economist

Hari Bansh Jha writes about why NRs and IRs peg should remain---Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses
Mr Jha wrote last month in Republica about why he thinks the peg between NRs and IRs should remain. Why is Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses publishing articles on NRs and IRs peg? It isn't a "defense" issue for either Nepal or India.

I disagree with Mr Jha's logic, and I have written in detail about those disagreements.
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Should the rural flights be subsidized?---Republica
On one hand, subsidized flights will help rural folks travel by plane more frequently, thus saving their time and money.On the other hand, private airplane operators are claiming that it is not feasible for them to operate subsidized flights. Their main reason being that if there is to be subsidy provided for rural flights, the government has to provide the entire subsidy, and should not be asking the private airplane operators to contribute. The private operators contend that they are already operating on razor thin margins, and asking them to contribute to the subsidy would actually create a financial loss.

I don't know what to think about this case. I would love to see more rural folks being able to afford plane rides. But, I can also understand the private operators' concern about hurting their bottom line. So, I think I have no opinion on this.
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26,076 take Korean Language Test---Republica
And, this is only the first round. There will be more test takers in another round. In 2009 there were 42,050 Nepalese who took the Korean Language Test.

If we start adding up all those that took the Korean test since 2004 in Nepal, and if we assume that these test takers had at least taken some classes on the language and knew the language at beginner's level, then there are now thousands of Nepalese who know Korean. The same thing could be said of Japanese language. There are now thousands of Nepalese who know at least beginner's level Japanese language.

My question is: Are Korean and Japanese going to be one of the major languages in Nepal in the future? Should we start emulating the western education system, and start teaching foreign languages to our kids in our schools?

Unlike the western countries where the focus is on French, German, and Spanish, the Nepalese education system could focus on Japanese, Korean and Chinese. That would make it easier for the low-skilled as well has high-skilled Nepalese to land good job and business opportunities in these rich Asian countries.