Nepal Weekly - 2026-06-10
Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.
Delhi This Week, Beijing Next
Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal finished a three days adventure in New Delhi on Sunday with three deliverables. He was able to stitch-together a live UPI-to-Nepal cross-border payments link, the handover of 72 health facilities and 12 cultural heritage sites rebuilt after the 2015 earthquake, and an MoU between India's Digital India Bhashini and Kathmandu University to build a voice-first AI platform for Nepali. Khanal also met National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and pitched a five-part partnership in energy, connectivity, digital integration, education, and technology, including a tripartite green-energy grid with India and Bangladesh and proposed IIT or AIIMS campuses in Nepal. On the border dispute, Khanal confirmed that teams are working along the 1,800+ km boundary and said Nepal wants historical documents from British archives for reference, not mediation. The new RSP government is pitching evidence-based, non-ideological diplomacy loudly enough that New Delhi is listening, and Jaishankar says it’s a chance to "shift the trajectory" of ties. Khanal leaves for Beijing on June 14, and has meetings scheduled with Wang Yi and CCP International Department head Liu Haixing on June 15 and 16.
Read more: Times of India (Jaishankar), The Kathmandu Post (five-pillar proposals), Stratnewsglobal (Kalapani reaffirmed), The Kathmandu Post (NCHL-NPCI mechanism), Opengovasia (Bhashini MoU signatories)
Hundi's Days Are Numbered
Nepal Clearing House and India's NPCI went live with a real-time, fully digital cross-border transfer link on June 9, connecting Nepal's NPI directly to India's UPI. Migrant workers on both sides of the border will now be able to move money through mobile banking without ever having to see a remittance agent. The limits are (hilariously?) lopsided, though - transfers from India into Nepal can be up to INR 200,000 (about $2,400) with no monthly cap, but the Nepal-to-India direction is limited to INR 15,000 (about $180) per transaction and INR 100,000 (about $1,200) monthly. At INR 150 per transfer, the fee is modest when compared to the $1.5 to $2 billion in annual cross-border flows that still move through a mix of formal channels and cash hand-carried over the border.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post
Reopening the Palace Massacre File
Sudhan Gurung's first act back at the Home Ministry was to reopen the Narayanhiti royal massacre file, the 2001 palace killing of King Birendra and members of the royal family that’s never really resulted in a convincing official account. Gurung, an RSP MP from Gorkha-1 who resigned the same post earlier, was sworn in Tuesday by President Paudel alongside Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Mahabir Pun. Beyond the palace case, Gurung announced a task force to review whether criminal charges against Gen-Z protest participants from last Bhadra should be dropped, and a special unit to stop “sensitive” information leaking out of the ministry. Pun, an independent MP from Myagdi and a longtime advocate for a standalone science ministry, arrived at his new post promising to wrap up his agenda within three years.
Read more: Himalaya Times (ceremony attendees), Khabarhub (four decisions), Khabarhub (Pun)
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EC Wants a Smaller Parliament
The Election Commission has proposed cutting the House of Representatives from 275 to 105 seats, and shrinking the National Assembly from 59 to 30 members, in addition to (perhaps most surprisingly) trimming its own ranks from five commissioners to three. On the other hand, however, it also wants the constitution to give it sole authority over setting election dates, a power it now shares with the government. The slimmed-down lower house would seat 77 first-past-the-post members and 28 by way of proportional representation (one constituency per district), while proportional representation in provincial assemblies would be done away with altogether. Officiating Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari says the goal is a "lean and agile" institution.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post
Take the Money and Run
Of Rs 770 million ($5.1 million) in subsidised loans given to 765 startups over the past two fiscal years, only Rs 28.2 million ($186,000) has been returned, for a repayment rate under 4 percent. The scheme, introduced by the Oli government in 2018 in support of more self-employment, was dormant for five years because of “procedural delays.” This year's disbursement is running late after political reshuffling and a vacancy at the top of the Industrial Enterprise Development Institute, which is still trying to work through a list of about 750 final recipients from 1,301 shortlisted applicants out of 10,244 who applied. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle has an idea for a new support vehicle, the Nepal Enterprise Facility, which would bring startup and SME businesses onto a single platform. Loans go through Rastriya Banijya Bank at 3 percent apr, up to Rs 2 million ($13,200) apiece.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post
Reasons to Leak a Budget
Armed Police intercepted 775 unregistered Chinese EVs on the Mustang-Kaski corridor in raids Wednesday and into Thursday, after a tip that customs officials, clearing agents, and traders had been working together to rush vehicles through the Korala border crossing before the 2026-27 budget's higher EV tariffs came into force. Not one of the seized vehicles had a license plate. The government has been pushing EV adoption, though, and a Ministry of Infrastructure Development report this week found Nepal needs 10,000 charging stations by 2030 to reach its 90 percent private EV target. That compares to the about 1,000 stations that can be found today, most of them clustered in Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Bharatpur.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post (seizure operation), myRepublica (charging infrastructure)
Fifteen Days Was Always a Lie
1,488 (Ed: that’s an oddly specific number) people from 388 households are still parked in seven government holding centres across Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Kavrepalanchok, 39 days after evictions that came with a (written!) promise of permanent housing within 10 to 15 days. The six-point notice issued April 24 has become “inoperative.” Chief District Officer Eshwor Raj Poudel declined to comment, saying the process is under review. In Parliament on May 31, the PM gave a different perspective when he said "It will take as long as it takes. We cannot rush it."
Read more: The Kathmandu Post
Congress Can't Find Its Members
Nepali Congress launched a digital membership renewal drive on April 14 to clean up its records ahead of the 15th General Convention. It cleaned up more than expected. The party had roughly 850,000 active members as it went into its 14th convention; officials now admit the updated database will end up having about half that number. Some of the gap is ordinary attrition (like members who emigrated, or went to the Rastriya Swatantra Party), but some of the change is more… political. Cadres aligned with Shekhar Koirala and Purna Bahadur Khadka are refusing to renew until Gagan Thapa, who ruan a special convention at the end of 2025, wins back their confidence. "I have not updated my membership because I want the leadership to feel pressure," for example, said one Jhapa leader.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post (vote-member gap), The Kathmandu Post (decade-long morale)
Uber Rolls In
Uber arrived on Friday as the fourth international ride-hailing platform in Nepal, drawing about 2,500 driver registrations within a week and getting more than 20,000 app installs. Regional VP Dominic Taylor mentioned the company had been looking at Nepal a decade ago before putting the idea on ice, but apparently the youth-led government and pending ride-sharing legislation has changed the math. The Uber success story in Nepal will lean heavily on tourist traffic from markets where Uber is already operating.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post (Uber partnership model)
Two Flags Battle for a Single Generation
The US and Chinese embassies opened applications for rival youth leadership programmes within weeks of each other, each trying to draw members from the generation that toppled the Oli government last September at a cost of 76 lives. The American version has been running since 2014 and claims 700 alumni across Nepal; China's brand-new "Youth Pioneer Program" is dangling an all-expense-paid trip to Beijing for top performers. Oh la la.
Read more: Firstpost
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