Editorial

The Nation’s Son His Royal Highness Gyalsey Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck is one year old  tomorrow. On this same day last year, the Kingdom experienced enormous joy and happiness with the birth of The Gyalsey.

The Bhutanese man who went missing in Bangkok for 10 days has finally been found. We are thankful to those people who may have helped him get through his 10-day ordeal, which undoubtedly must have been a dreadfully frightening experience.

It is as if our roads get hit by massive objects from faraway galaxies on a daily basis. Look around and there are potholes that could well be craters.

Having achieved a GDP growth of 6.5 percent in 2015, economic forecasts for the coming years look promising.

Vacation is over. It’s time for school again.

As we look ahead from this season’s tail end, Shelley comes to mind. We are very much in the winter’s icy grip, but spring, the time of rebirth, regeneration and hope, isn’t far behind.

Culture is not static. It changes and evolves.

However, globalisation is occurring on a rapid rate today. Some argue that this is leading to a loss of local cultures and traditions.

Bhutan’s position in the global corruption ranking has remained unchanged at 27, which means for the last three years, Bhutan’s scores in the annual index has not fallen.

Another signifiant milestone occurs today in the fields of information communications technology (ICT) and banking. The government will launch its interbank online payment gateway which will enable customers to make online payments between accounts of three banks. Until now, online payments were limited to between accounts within a bank.

The season of fire is upon us. Recently, in a span of a week, Thimphu saw two forest fires – one above Simtokha Dzong and the other at Serbithang. Going by how frequent such incidences are, especially during winter, we can expect many more.

Businessman Sonam Phuntsho (Ap SP) withdrew his libel case against freelance journalist Namgay Zam and Dr Shacha Wangmo, a day before a much-awaited verdict was to be handed down.