« Their Majesties in Gelephu with the people of Sarpang

[Read More]

When work on the new 40-bed Samtse hospital begins, it will be built using stronger steel bars, the Fe500 grade steel.
The decision to switch from Fe415 to Fe500 grade steel was taken after McKinsey & Co. projected a current savings of Nu 20M, and told the government that Fe500’s strength was better than Fe415. [Read More]

Saktengpas are already drawing up their “to-do” lists
«Rural electrification project in Sakteng is nearing completion
The remote nomadic community of Sakteng has something to look forward to after the daw dangpa losar (first day of the first month of the Bhutanese calendar). [Read More]

Most of what astrologers of Pangrizampa predicted during the year of the tiger about what the rabbit had in store came true. [Read More]

It is time yet again, when we stand at the precipice of a new year.
But before teetering towards 2012, as goes a saying among the wise, we ought to look at the past for strength to leap forward. [Read More]

From politics to power, the economy to birth rates, look forward to a spell of hotting up
OUTLOOK: If hot lava can erupt from the depths of an ocean, then a water dragon should be able to breathe flames.
One area, where things will heat up this year, possibly to a flaming degree, is party and non-party politics. [Read More]

ASTROLOGY: The water male dragon year is here, but the predictions Bhutanese astrologers make are not all that rosy.
It demands the country and its people to be cautious. [Read More]

Bomb blasts in 2011 occurred days before a major event, as did the recent one
What is common to the bomb blasts in the country is that they all occur a few days before any big event.
The recent bomb blast at Rinchending checkpost in Phuentsholing is the first such incident in 2012 that happened a few days before His Majesty’s birthday today. [Read More]

Yearender: BLOOPERS- It is, yet again, that time of the year when we sit down to reflect on the past and, possibly, learn from it.  In the newsroom, we were doing just that.  Mulling over the mistakes we made in our issues in the last year. [Read More]

Dogged by the shadow of corruption, the sector was further undermined by the drug shortage crisis
Yearender: HEALTH- The health ministry was not well in the Iron Female Rabbit year.
Given the “corruption” baggage it carried from the previous year, the media did not stop nibbling at the ministry for the chronic shortage of drugs its health centres across the country grappled with. [Read More]

With steps like a national optic fibre network, G2C, etc. the goal of an ICT-enabled society is that much nearer
Yearender: IT- Bhutan took its first few concrete steps in what should eventually be its big leap into the information age, and the creation of an information technology-literate and enabled society, last year. [Read More]

100 years on, the sector wrestles with the same old issue of teacher shortage
Yearender: EDUCATION- The education sector will turn a new page today.
It will celebrate national education day and mark its 100 years of journey in modern education.
As the education family celebrates their work in making Bhutan a modern society, the education sector is still challenged with the same issues it was dealing with years ago. [Read More]

Yearender: YOUTH- Optimistic despite the employment issue, the government, through its labour ministry, started the Rabbit Year with hope to bring down the unemployment rate from 3.3 to 2.5 percent by the end. [Read More]

Yearender: DIPLOMACY- The year of the Female Iron Rabbit saw much progress for Bhutan’s international standing and relations.
Bhutan’s strong relations with India were once again highlighted when their Majesties the King and Queen, at the invitation of the president of India, paid a nine-day state visit to the country 10 days after their wedding in October. [Read More]

Balooning trade deficit led to record borrowing of the Indian rupee
Yearender: ECONOMY- The rabbit year saw Bhutan’s economy accelerate like the nimble animal itself, but the rabbit needs to chew continuously and chew it did for a year, creating an unhealthy economic situation.  It didn’t have the luxury of meadows aplenty, so most times the rabbit was out of its burrow to chew by borrowing.
While gross domestic product averaged eleven percent in 2010-11, the economy’s export remained more or less the same, but imports shot through the roof. [Read More]