ARJUN POUDELKATHMANDU, JAN 20

Nepal is going to get the first lot of Covid-19 vaccines on Thursday, just days before the country marks one year since the first coronavirus case.

“India is providing one million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Nepal under grant assistance,” Health Minister Hridayesh Tripathi said on Wednesday at a joint press meet organised by the Health Ministry and the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

“The first consignment will arrive on Thursday.”

Indian Ambassador to Nepal Vinay Mohan Kwatra said that Nepal is among few countries to receive the vaccine manufactured in India.

“This is a gift from the government of India and the people of India to Nepal,” said Kwatra. “Nepal is getting the vaccines within a week after India rolled out its vaccination drive, which signifies the friendship between India and Nepal and the importance India attaches to Nepal.”

The vaccines that India, which launched its vaccination drive against Covid-19 on Saturday, is providing to Nepal are developed by the University of Oxford and drug manufacturing giant AstraZeneca and produced by the Serum Institute of India.

“This is a historic day for us and a unique example of Nepal-India friend-ship,” said Tripathi.

The coronavirus, which was first detected in Wuhan of China in December 2019, became a menace in the entire 2020, forcing countries to race for a cure.

It took companies almost a year to manufacture vaccines and complete three phases of trials before they could be rolled out for inoculation.

As the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, China and some other countries launched their vaccination drives against the coronavirus which has infected 96,722,769 and killed 2,068,154 people across the world, there were concerns in Nepal over when the vaccines will arrive.

Nepal confirmed its first Covid-19 case on January 24 last year. So far,

268,310 have been infected and 1,975 have died of Covid-19.

According to Tripathi, vaccines pro-vided by India will be administered to frontline workers—health workers, supporting staff serving in the hospi-tals, ambulance drivers, security per-sonnel, those deployed in body man-agement and others.

The announcement that the first lot of vaccines will arrive in Nepal comes days after Nepal’s drug regulator granted emergency use approval for Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.

The government is planning to inoculate 20 percent (or 6 million) of its population in the first phase to immunise people above the age of 60 in addition to frontline health workers, for which the country will need at least 12 mil-lion doses of Covid-19 vaccine.

Nepal will have to inoculate 72 percent of its 29 million popula-tion against the coronavirus as 28 percent are children under the age of 14.

Children under 14 years can’t be immunised as vaccines hav-en’t been tested on them.

“To inoculate 72 percent of

our population, we will need addition-al doses of the vaccines which we will procure very soon,” said Tripathi.

Nepal has been planning to procure vaccines from India after the southern neighbour cleared phase III trial for Covishield a few days ago.

During Foreign Minister Pradeep Gywali’s visit to New Delhi last week, securing a deal on getting some doses of vaccine under grant assis-tance and easing procurement of the vaccines from India were high on the agenda.

However, no deal was signed during Gyawali’s Delhi visit.

>> Continued on page 2

Vaccines arriving in Nepal one year after the country reported its first Covid-19 case

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W I T H O U T F E A R O R F A V O U RNepal’s largest selling English dailyPrinted simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj

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ASSOCIATED PRESSWASHINGTON, JAN 20

Joe Biden became the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, declaring that “democracy has prevailed” as he took the helm of a deeply divided nation and inherit-ed a confluence of crises arguably greater than any faced by his predecessors.

History was made at his side, as Kamala Harris became the first woman to be vice president. The former US sena-tor from California is also the first Black person and the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency and will become the highest-ranking woman ever to serve in government.

Harris broke the barrier that has kept men at the top ranks of American power for more than two centuries when she took the oath to hold the nation’s sec-ond-highest office.

The moment was steeped in history and significance in more ways than one. She was escorted to the podium by Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, the officer who single-handedly took on a mob of Trump supporters as they tried to breach the Senate floor during the Capitol insurrection that sought to overturn the election results. Harris was wearing clothes from two young, emerging Black designers—a deep purple dress and coat.

Biden’s inauguration came at a time of national tumult and uncertainty, a ceremony of resilience as the hallowed American democratic rite unfurled at a US Capitol bat-tered by an insurrectionist siege just two weeks ago.

The chilly Washington morning was dotted with snow flurries, but the sun emerged just before Biden took the oath of office, the quadrennial ceremony persevering even though it was encircled by security forces evocative of a war zone and devoid of crowds because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The will of the people has been heard, and the will of the people has been heeded. We’ve learned again that democracy is precious and democracy is fragile. At this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed,” Biden said. “This is America’s day. This is democracy’s day. A day in history and hope, of renewal and resolve.”

And then he pivoted to challenges ahead, acknowledging the surging virus that has claimed more than 400,000 lives in the United States. Biden looked out over a capital city dotted with empty storefronts that attest to the pandemic’s deep economic toll and where summer protests laid bare the nation’s renewed reckoning on racial injustice.

“We have much to do in this winter of peril, and signifi-cant possibilities: much to repair, much to restore, much to heal, much to build and much to gain,” Biden said. “Few people in our nation’s history have more challenged, or found a time more challenging or difficult than the time we’re in now.”

Harris’ rise is historic in any context, another moment when a stubborn boundary falls away, expanding the idea of what’s possible in American politics. But it’s particular-ly meaningful because Harris is taking office at a moment of deep consequence, with Americans grappling over the role of institutional racism and confronting a pandemic that has disproportionately devastated Black and brown communities.

Those close to Harris say she’ll bring an important—and often missing—perspective in the debates on how to over-come the many hurdles facing the new administration.

“In many folks’ lifetimes, we experienced a segregated United States,” said Lateefah Simon, a civil rights advocate and longtime Harris friend and mentee. “You will now have a Black woman who will walk into the White House not as a guest but as a second in command of the free world.”

>> Continued on page 6

POST PHOTO: ANGAD DHAKAL

Health Minister Hridayesh Tripathi makes an announcement about the vaccines during a joint press conference with Indian Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra at the ministry on Wednesday.

PHOTOS: AP/RSS

Kamala Harris made history on Wednesday as she was sworn in as the first woman vice president of the United States of America. (Below) Biden’s inauguration came at a time of national tumult and uncertainty as a ceremony of resilience at the US Capitol.

Biden takes the helm as president: ‘Democracy has prevailed’Harris breaks the barrier that has kept men at the top ranks of American power for more than two centuries.

One million doses of coronavirus vaccine to land in Nepal today under grant assistance from India, which, officials say would be used for frontline workers.

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021 | 02

NATIONAL

POST PHOTO: BEEJU MAHARJAN

An excavator drains water from a construction site next to a river at Chobhar, Kathmandu on Wednesday.

>> Continued from page 1Officials and diplomats, however,

had told the Post that India had given assurances that it would soon supply some doses of the vaccines to Nepal under grant assistance.

It was on Tuesday evening India’s Ministry of External Affairs announced that Nepal is on the list of countries to which it will start supply-ing the vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India. The minis-try said that India will supply Covid-19 vaccines to Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Seychelles from January 20.

Kwatra said that India has coordi-nated with Nepal since day one to help Nepal in the fight against the coronavirus, by providing safety gears, polymerase chain reaction machines and reagents and ventila-tors, among others.

“Cooperation on Covid-19 was one of the important issues during Foreign Minister Gyawali’s visit to New Delhi last week with his counter-part S Jaishankar,” said Kwatra at Wednesday’s press conference.

Covishield is the preferred choice of the vaccine of Nepali authorities since the existing storage and trans-portation infrastructure used in the country to immunise children can be utilised. Covishield vaccines have to be stored in plus temperature between 2 to 8 degree Celsius.

Nepal has also been assured that vaccines to inncoulcate 3 percent of the population will be received from the World Health Organisation’s COVAX programme by April. The UN body will provide enough vaccines for 20 percent of the population in the form of a grant, according to officials at the Health Ministry.

Agencies under the Health Ministry have made a priority list of the people

to administer the vaccine.“We have 911,000 people on the first

priority list,” Dr Roshan Pokhrel, chief specialist at the Health Ministry, told the Post. “If we get all doses at once on Thursday, we will supply them to all 77 districts within two to three days.”

The ministry is working on holding discussions with experts about wheth-er to immunise all the people on the first priority list or half of them, as the vaccines gifted by India will be sufficient for just less than 500,000 people.

Each person needs two doses of vaccine and some doses of vaccine may be wasted due to various factors.

According to doctors, around 10 per-cent of the vaccines get wasted in general during all vaccination drives.

“The consignment we are receiving on Thursday is part of India’s commit-ment to help us in the fight against the pandemic,” said Pokhrel. “As we can administer a second dose within a month we can administer all people on the first list from health facilities throughout the country simultaneously.”

The ministry has planned to admin-ister coronavirus vaccines from dis-trict hospitals across the country.

Public health experts say the arriv-al of the coronavirus vaccine is a pos-itive move when Nepal is trying to fight the pandemic.

“Arrival of vaccines and the deci-sion to immunise frontline workers in the first phase is very good news,” Dr Sher Bahadur Pun, chief of Clinical Research Unit at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, told the Post. “Authorities should also expedite the process to bring addition-al doses so as to protect the people who are in high risk groups and those who are vulnerable.”

Vaccines arriving in Nepal one year after the country reported its first ...

Shuklaphanta National Park fails to attract visitorsLack of infrastructure and neglect in maintenance have contributed to the dwindling number of visitors.BHAWANI BHATTAKANCHANPUR, JAN 20

Shuklaphanta National Park, which closed its gates to visitors last year when the country buckled under the Covid-19 pandemic, reopened three months ago. But the park has not been able to attract visitors given its poor infrastructure and internal misman-agement.

According to the data of the park’s administration, 1,775 tourists had vis-ited the park in the last fiscal year while the number was over 6,000 in the fiscal year 2018/2019. However, the park got only 600 tourists in the last three months.

“There were some tourists during Dashain and Tihar festivals but now there are no visitors at all,” said Kumkaran Thakur, a nature guide at the park. According to him, there are only occasional visitors entering the park these days.

Sightings of swamp deer are what draw visitors to the park but this year there have been fewer numbers of such sightings, says Parsuram Rana, chairman of Ranatharu Homestay.

“The grass in the grasslands has grown very tall. It’s very hard to see deer through all that foliage,” Rana said. Established as a national park in 1976, Shuklaphanta is the country’s second youngest national park, after Parsa National Park, and is the main habitat of swamp deer. The largest herd of swamp deer in Asia can be

seen in the grasslands of Shuklaphanta, according to conservationists.

In the past, the park would main-tain the flora of the grassland with the onset of winter so as to make swamp deer sightings easy for visitors but this year no maintenance work has been done in the park, said Rana.

According to Rabin Chaudhary, the assistant conservation officer of the park, there’s been a delay in the main-tenance of the grassland due to the contractor’s negligence.

“We have been notifying the con-tractor time and again but the works have not started yet,” Chaudhary said. According to the agreement, the con-tractor has to beautify the grassland within March 28. “The park has also started the construction of grasslands in an additional 150 bighas of land.”

Chaudhary agrees that the national park does not have the required infra-structure to facilitate tourists.

“There are hardly any hotels with good accommodation and food around this area. The park has also not been able to introduce new activities for tourists,” he said. “The park has a huge potential to be developed into a popular tourist destination. We can introduce rafting activities in Bahuni Khola, which is inside the park area.”

According to the census of 2019, there were 82 blue bulls in the park. The park is also home to tigers, rhi-nos, reptiles, amphibians and various bird species.

Wild boars wreak havoc in settlements near Langtang parkBALARAM GHIMIRERASUWA, JAN 20

Wild boars have been wreaking havoc in the settlements of Khanjing in Gosaikunda Rural Municipality, Rasuwa, forcing villagers to leave their fields barren.

The villagers say wild boars enter their fields at night and destroy ready-to-harvest crops.

“We used to cultivate crops in four to five different fields but this year we have limited ourselves to just one field. We can’t sit guard in all the fields to chase away wild boars,” said Duktar Tamang, a local resident.

Farmers living in the settlements near Langtang National Park have been badly affected by the menace caused by wild boars.

Phinjo Tamang, a local resident of Thangsyap, says he has not cultivated potatoes for the last six years because of wild boar menace.

“This year, the animals are destroy-ing crops like buckwheat and barley,” Tamang said.

According to the study performed by the Friends of Nature, an organisa-tion working in the field of environ-ment and conservation, an estimated 1,300 to 2,200 wild boars were reported in Langtang National Park in 2013. The study was conducted in the then Langtang, Buddim, Dhunche and Yarsa VDCs. According to the study, Langtang is home to the most number of wild boars in the region.

Villagers in Ghoda Tabela, Thangsyap, Gumba Danda, Langtang, Mundu and Singdum settlements have also left their farmlands barren.

“I own 14 ropanis of land. But I have cultivated crops in only four ropanis. I don’t have the resources to secure all my farmland from wild boar attacks,” said Gwang Tamang of Buddim. “No one has paid heed to our problems.”

Susma Rana, the chief conservation officer of Langtang National Park, said the number of farmers filing applications for compensation has

increased of late. According to her, the park distributed around Rs 4 million as compensation to 431 farmers in the last fiscal year.

“In the current fiscal year, we have already distributed around Rs 1 mil-lion to 142 farmers. Most of the farm-ers who received compensation are those whose crops were destroyed by wild boars,” said Rana.

According to Rana, the park pro-vides compensation to farmers after evaluating the loss they incurred from wild boar attacks.

“The park has not adopted any

other measures to stop wild boars from entering the farmlands. There are many herds of wild boars in the Langtang area and they cannot be easily controlled,” she said.

As per the existing legal provisions of the country, the family of a person killed in a wildlife attack is entitled to receive Rs 1 million. An individual who suffers from serious injuries in wildlife attacks will get a compensa-tion of Rs 200,000 whereas a victim with minor injuries will receive Rs 20,000. Similarly, the compensation amount in case of crop depredation by

wild animals has been doubled to Rs 20,000. To claim the compensation amount, the affected person has to file a formal request to the concerned authorities within 35 days of the incident.

Wild boars are not protected ani-mals per se. The National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act only enu-merates a total of 26 mammals as pro-tected species. But it is still illegal to kill wild animals that are not on the list of protected species, as per the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act-1973.

Students launch protest against alleged swindling by two colleges in Rukum (West)The agitating students have padlocked TNT Technical College and Syarputal Engineering College.HARI GAUTAMRUKUM (WEST), JAN 20

Students of TNT Technical College and Syarputal Engineering College in Musikot, the district head-quarters of Rukum (West), staged demonstrations on Monday citing that they were swindled by the colleges on the pretext of teaching technical education.

On Monday, the agitated students padlocked the TNT Technical College whereas Syarputal Engineering College was closed a few days ago. They have launched a street protest demanding action against their colleg-es and refund of their fees.

“The colleges had taken fees from us earlier citing that they had launched an 18-month-long course and a 3year course under technical educa-tion. But those courses are shorter than we were told. We have not sat for any exams in the last two years,” said Sharmila Rasaili, one of the students from the TNT College. “We got duped and that is why we are protest-ing. We will continue until our demands are met,”

Rambabu Devkota, the coordinator of the protest programme, said the

protest programmes started in Musikot from Sunday.

“We had also notified the District Administration Office in Rukum

(West) about the matter,” he said.The District Administration Office

has also formed a taskforce to conduct an investigation into the case under

the coordination of assistant Chief District Officer Sher Bahadur Pun. According to Pun, the taskforce has got a time frame of 10 days to carry out the investigation.

The students of TNT College said each of them had paid Rs 3,000 to Rs 61,000 as fees.

“But the college has only taught us basic computer skills,” said Rasaili. There are 33 students studying at TNT College.

Similarly, 10 students of Syarputal Engineering College said that they had also paid Rs 6,000 to Rs 20,000 as admission fees.

Meanwhile, Tilak Dangi, manager of the TNT College, denied the allega-tions of the students.

“Students are in protest under the influence of student unions,” said Dangi, claiming that the college has an affiliation with CTEVT to teach courses for computer operators, tele-com technicians and electricians.

“The investigation of the District Administration Office will also reveal the truth in the coming days. Some of the courses are free of cost and some of them have fixed fees. We had charged fees on the basis of such courses,” he said.

POST PHOTO: HARI GAUTAM

The students are demanding action against their colleges and refund of their fees. POST PHOTO: BHAWANI BHATTA

Shuklaphanta is the country’s second youngest national park and is the main habitat of swamp deer.

POST PHOTO: BALARAM GHIMIRE

Villagers have left their fields barren due to the menace caused by wild boars from Langtang National Park.

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03 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021

NATIONAL

BRIEFING All’s not well inside Janata Samajbadi PartyWhile Bhattarai and Yadav want to protest against the dissolution of the House, Thakur and Mahato have other plans.

ANIL GIRIKATHMANDU, JAN 20

The Janata Samajbadi Party held nationwide protests on Wednesday against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s decision to dissolve the House of Representatives.

The party, which termed Oli’s move “unconstitutional and undemocratic”, has announced more protests. But the party formed after a merger between two different political forces last year has a problem of its own: Its leaders are at odds over Oli’s deci-sion to dissolve the House and hold the snap elections on April 30 and May 10.

“We have already condemned Oli’s move by calling it ‘undemocratic and unconstitutional’,” said party leader Anil Jha. “But as we believe in democracy, rule of law and constitu-tionalism, we are ready to go for polls if the Supreme Court validates Oli’s decision to dissolve the House,” he added.

Party leaders admit that the differ-ence of opinion between top leaders over Oli’s decision to dissolve the House can be attributed to their differ-ent political ideologies and personal preferences.

The party was formed following a merger on April 22 between Samajbadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Party—largely prompted by an ordinance Oli had introduced to ease provisions related to the split and registration of parties.

Experts closely following the inter-nal dynamics of the JSP for long said that it is beyond their comprehension that a united political party fails to take up a firm position on a sensitive political issue such as the dissolution of the House of Representatives.

“If you ask me, this JSP is yet to be unified as a political party,” said Chandra Kishore, a Madhes-based observer, and political analyst. “The merger happened as Upendra Yadav was running his old Samajbadi Party as his own ‘company’ while the Rashtriya Janata Party (formed after a merger between six Madhes-based parties), had their own political agen-das,” Kishore told the Post.

The party was formed on April 22 as the then Samajbadi Party Nepal and the Rashtriya Janata Party announced their merger at midnight vowing to transform themselves into a strong alternative force to challenge tradi-

tional forces such as Nepal Communist Party and the Nepali Congress.

Some senior party leaders such as former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and former Deputy Prime Minister Yadav are opposing Oli’s move and have been calling for the restoration of the House. But other leaders such as Mahantha Thakur and Rajendra Mahato are of the view that there is no doubt Oli’s decision may be “ undemocratic and unconstitutional” but what happened was a result of flaws in the constitution.

Under the banner of various politi-cal outfits, six Madhes-based political parties had resorted to violent pro-tests and imposed an economic block-ade on the Nepal-India border after the promulgation of the new constitu-tion in September 2015.

“It is well known that both Bhattarai and Yadav are left-leaning in terms of ideology. That’s why they are close to

former Maoist leader, Pushpa Kamal Dahal,” another senior JSP leader told the Post. “Yadav has had a very bad experience with Oli, who ‘unceremo-niously’ removed him from his minis-terial stint.

“It is true that we have to complete the merger process. So there could be a difference of opinion between lead-ers, but it is also true that our political credentials are democratic,” said Jha. “But we have termed Oli’s move unconstitutional and undemocratic, and that’s why we are hitting the streets now,” he added. “Since we believe in democracy, rule of law, and constitutionalism, we have to accept the court’s verdict too.”

Former Nepali Ambassador to Denmark Vijay Kant Karna, who teaches political science at Tribhuvan University says that JSP is in trouble due to Oli’s move.

“Yadav wants to launch an aggres-

sive campaign against Oli, but former RJPN leaders such as Mahantha Thakur, Rajendra Mahato want the party to wait for the Supreme Court’s verdict on the petitions filed against the dissolution of the House of Representatives.”

“But, Yadav as current party chair, should have consulted other party leaders before commenting on Oli’s move. So I see some difficulties inside our party,” said Karna.

Thakur and Mahato are of the view that as the constitution has several flaws, it needs to be amended.

“We all know the difference in schooling among leaders inside the JSP. A section of leaders thinks that if elections take place, they might get a good share in the distribution of the candidacies. Another section thinks that if the House is reinstated, they will get their fair share of the Cabinet pie,” said Kishore.

Assembly meeting postponed in Province 1, BagmatiMORANG: Owing to the dispute between the two factions of the rul-ing Nepal Community Party, the pro-vincial assembly meeting of Province 1 has been postponed for an indefinite period. Speaker Pradeep Kumar Bhandari announced that the seventh session of the provincial assembly will be postponed. Similarly, the pro-vincial assembly meeting of Bagmati Province has also been postponed indefinitely. The Dahal-Nepal group has filed the no-confidence motion against the chief ministers of both the provinces.

Woman dies in elephant attackMORANG: A 32-year-old woman has died of a wild elephant attack in Sundarharaicha Municipality-10, Morang. Sita Parajuli was attacked by the wild tusker while she was col-lecting firewood and fodder at Sukuna Community Forest on Tuesday. Critically injured Parajuli died in the course of treatment at Koshi Hospital on Wednesday morn-ing, said police.

108 children suffer from severe malnutrition in MuguMUGU: As many as 108 children in Mugu district are suffering from severe malnutrition for the past six months. As per the data available at the District Health Office, 66 girls and 42 boys aged six months to five years have been suffering from severe mal-nutrition. Of the total 108 children suffering from severe malnutrition, 75 are from the Dalit community.

Local unit not to provide services to electricity pilferersSINDHUPALCHOK: Indrawati Rural Municipality in Sindhupalchok dis-trict has announced that it will stop providing its services to those found stealing electricity. The rural munici-pality and Helambu Melamchi elec-tricity distribution centre of the Nepal Electricity Authority have reached an agreement to launch a campaign to keep in check electricity leakage in the area. “The distribution centre will provide elec-tricity metre boxes to impoverished families for free,” said Banshalal Tamang, the chairman of the local body.

POST FILE PHOTO

Experts say it is beyond their comprehension that a united political party has failed to take up a firm position on the dissolution of the House.

Nepal Police to recruit temporary personnel for electionsANUP OJHAKATHMANDU, JAN 20

Even amid uncertainty over the snap elections announced by President Bidya Devi Bhandari after the dissolu-tion of the House, Nepal Police is pre-paring to recruit temporary person-nel.

Preparations are on to recruit 96,000 temporary police personnel for the upcoming polls, said Senior Superintendent of Police Basanta Bahadur Kunwar, who is also the force’s spokesperson. The proposed numbers are less than that of 2017.

“We are committed to holding elec-tions on the stipulated date announced by the government,” said Kunwar.

In 2017—when the federal and pro-vincial elections were held on November 26 and December 7—the government had hired 98,168 tempo-rary police personnel to provide secu-rity to polling stations. A source at the Ministry of Finance told the Post that around Rs3 billion was spent on the temporary personnel.

He said that a meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs two weeks ago had asked Nepal Police to prepare plans to recruit temporary police. “We are yet to confirm the total budget for it, this is going to be minimum this time,” said Kunwar.

Most of the political parties, includ-ing the Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Nepal faction of the Nepal Communist Party, the Nepali Congress, and the Janata Samajbadi Party have been terming the dissolu-tion of the House and the announce-ment of snap elections as an unconsti-tutional move.

As many as 13 writ petitions have been filed against Oli’s administra-tion’s House dissolution move and those writs have been sent to the Constitutional Bench. A large group of people, including members of vari-ous political parties and citizens, have criticised Oli’s move as being uncon-stitutional, and are waiting for the court’s verdict on the petitions..

“Nepal Police’s role is to provide security for the upcoming elections, which should be held in a peaceful manner,” said Kunwar. “We are hav-ing an extended discussion over the topic.”

After House dissolution, questions raised over local infrastructure programmePRITHVI MAN SHRESTHAKATHMANDU, JAN 20

Questions have been raised over the lawmaker-led Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme following the dissolution of the House of Representatives and announce-ment of fresh elections.

The programme, which has long been facing criticism for being distrib-utive and promoting misuse of the funds, is mainly run by local consum-er committees usually led by cadres of various political parties.

But, successive governments in the past three decades, have continued the programme, previously known as Constituency Infrastructure Special Programme and the Constituency Development Programme, due to pres-sure from lawmakers.

According to the working procedure governing the programme, a directive committee headed by the directly elected lawmaker concerned and rep-resented by a lawmaker elected under the proportional category, and a National Assembly member is respon-sible for selecting and monitoring pro-jects under the programme.

“After dissolution of the House of Representatives, there is a question about how the lawmakers of dissolved House can discharge their duties under the programme,” said Bhanu Acharya, former auditor general.

“The programme also seems out of place as the government is seeking external assistance and donations to procure Covid-19 vaccines,” Acharya told the Post.

Following widespread criticism, the government in June decided to invest unused funds from the Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme for its anti-Covid-19 responses.

The Cabinet on June 16 had approved an amendment to the regula-tion governing the programme, allowing the transfer of its unused funds to Covid-19 accounts at the local level.

The programme should not have been continued at all,” said Acharya. “When there is a greater need for resources for purchasing vaccines and even holding elections, it is not right to distribute funds under such a pro-gramme that does not contribute sig-nificantly to economic growth.”

The government’s budget for the current fiscal year has reduced the amount allocated for this programme to Rs40 million per constituency from Rs60 million per constituency in the last fiscal year amid a resource crunch faced by the government due to the

coronavirus pandemic. This still translates to Rs6.6 billion.

“This is a huge amount which could have been utilised in various projects, including anti-Covid-19 efforts, that give tangible results,” said Acharya.

After the people’s representatives took charge of the local governments in 2017, questions are being asked whether the country needs pro-grammes such as the Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme, which was continued in the name of connecting people with their elected representa-tives in the absence of local govern-ments.

Critics have also raised questions about the programme’s impact on the elections. As members of the now-dis-solved House can spend money from the programme to influence voters, their opponents will not get a level playing field in the upcoming elec-tions, they say.

On December 20, upon the recom-mendation of the Cabinet President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the House of Representatives and announced the snap elections on April 30 and May 10. Whether the govern-ment’s move was constitutional or not is being debated at the Supreme Court.

Former Chief Election Commissioner Bhojraj Pokharel said the continuation of the programme would be unfair for candidates who are not lawmakers of the dissolved House, in case elections are held.

“For the elections to be considered fair, all candidates should get a level playing field. Such programmes don’t give equal opportunities to all candi-

dates,” he said. According to him, it is the responsi-

bility of the Election Commission to ensure that the elections are fair. “If the commission finds that the imple-mentation of the programme does not provide a level playing field to candi-dates and could potentially affect the integrity of the polls, it should take necessary action,” he said.

In 2017, during the run-up to the federal and provincial elections, the commission had ordered the govern-ment to discontinue the programme for the same reason.

But, Election Commissioner Narendra Dahal said that it is not yet time to make a call over the pro-gramme as a lot of things related to the elections are undecided. “Once we roll out a code of conduct and publi-cise the election programme, the com-mission will make a decision on the programme,” Dahal told the Post.

Even though the government decid-ed to divert the unspent resources under the programme to anti-Covid-19 efforts last year, it has not taken any further decision on it.

According to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, the contact ministry for local governments projects to be implemented under this programme have already been finalised in almost all electoral constituencies.

The lawmaker-led directive commit-tees were supposed to select the pro-jects by mid-December. “Except the decision is taken otherwise, the pro-jects under the Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme will go into implementation,” said Dilaram Panthi, undersecretary at the

federal affairs ministry. “The working procedure has the

provision that the implementation of the programme would not be affected in the absence of lawmakers,” he said.

Even though the lawmakers of the dissolved House were involved in the selection of projects, they won’t be able to monitor the programmes if the Supreme Court does not restore the House of Representatives.

“In such a situation, the govern-ment may take some decision for the monitoring purpose,” said Panthi.

Jhapat Bahadur Rawal, a lawmaker of the dissolved House of Representatives, insisted that projects under this Local Infrastructure Development Partnership programme should be implemented.

Rawal, who had moved the court in 2017 over the same issue as elections were round the corner, said that the situation is different from the one seen in 2017. On January 14, 2018, the Supreme Court through interim order had stopped the implementation of the projects which were selected after October 14, 2017.

“At that time, lawmakers who had lost the elections could have been involved in the selection and imple-mentation process,” he said. “Now, I am confident that the House has not been dissolved despite an ‘unconstitu-tional’ move from the Prime Minister.”

He said that there was no need to halt the implementation of the pro-jects under the programme as projects have already been selected and law-makers won’t be involved in the imple-mentation process like in the past.

However, the government has added a provision to the working procedure that gives more space for irregulari-ties. The amendment says that only consumer committees can implement the projects. The programme has also been made more distributive as per the new provision despite past efforts to make it more result-oriented.

The new working procedure has removed the provision that required projects with a Rs5 million price tag to be implemented through a con-tractor selected through a tender pro-cess. This leaves space for irregulari-ties.

It has also removed the provision from the working procedure that requires the committees to spend half of the budget on programmes that are estimated to cost more than Rs5 mil-lion. The newly amended working pro-cedure approved in October last year by the Cabinet states that a maximum of 30 projects, each having an estimat-ed cost of over Rs1 million, can be implemented in each constituency.

POST FILE PHOTO

The government’s budget for the current fiscal year has reduced the amount allocated for the programme to Rs40 million per constituency from Rs60 million in the last fiscal year amid a resource crunch faced by the government due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Wildlife rescue operations in Palpa unsafe due to ill-equipped forest officesForest officials and security personnel lack tranquiliser guns and various other equipment required for a safe and immediate rescue of wildlife.

MADHAV ARYALPALPA, JAN 20

An adult leopard fell into a snare that some villagers had set up to trap por-cupines at Bhuwanpokhari in Rainadevi Chhahara Rural Municipality, Palpa in November last year.

After spotting the leopard entangled in barbed wires, the villagers immedi-ately informed the Division Forest Office. The forest officials reached the site but they did not have a tranquilis-er gun to dart the leopard and rescue it. The ill-equipped team of forest offi-cials and security personnel rescued the leopard four hours later with the help of an excavator. By then, the leop-ard had sustained serious injuries and had to be taken to Chitwan for treat-ment the next day. He died a couple of days later.

“The leopard could have survived if we had been able to tranquilise it and remove him from the trap on time. But the rescue operation took too long. The forest office does not have the necessary tools and technologies required for wildlife rescue,” said Mohan Paudel, chief at the Division Forest Office in Palpa. “As a result, most of the animals die while being rescued or shortly after their rescue.”

Bhuwanpokhari’s incident of leop-ard rescue is just a case in point. The rescue of wildlife is a difficult task for the forest officials and security per-sonnel due to a lack of tranquiliser guns and various other equipment required for a safe and immediate res-cue work.

According to the data available at the forest office, around 50 leopards were rescued in Palpa district in the past year.

“More than 40 of them died while being rescued or due to delay in res-cue,” said Yamlal Pokharel, the infor-mation officer at the Division Forest Office. According to him, the rescue work of other animals, including snakes, bears, wild boars, porcupines and barking deer, among others, are equally difficult.

Pokharel also underscored the need for a wildlife rescue and treatment

centre for the effective rehabilitation of wildlife.

“We have difficulties in rescuing wild animals, as we do not have the necessary infrastructures and facilities where we can rehabili-tate the rescued animals,” said Pokharel.

The local residents of Bhuwanpokhari say wild animals have begun entering human settle-ments in search of food and water of late. The forest consumers’ groups and the villagers use sticks and other tools to chase the wild animals away.

“We chase away the straying wild animals by ourselves and inform the forest office if an animal is found injured or trapped. But the forest offi-cials cannot always rescue the trapped wildlife to safety, as they do not have tranquiliser guns and other tools required,” said Jhabindra Neupane, a consumer of a local community forest in Ribdikot Rural Municipality-1.

Paudel admits that wildlife rescue in Palpa is ineffective and unsuccess-ful due to a lack of modern technolo-gies and equipment in the district for-est offices.

“We have to rescue wild animals by using traditional tools and technolo-gies. So many wild animals die because of that,” said Paudel, adding that the forest office has informed the higher authorities about the need for tranquiliser guns and other tools. “But they are yet to address our issue.”

The conservation of various wild animals has been challenging across the country, mainly due to poaching and smuggling. The unsafe rescue of wildlife further worsens the wildlife conservation efforts, conservationists say.

“Various wild animals, including leopards and bears, are tortured and even killed during rescue operations. The necessary tools and equipment are required for their safe rescue,” said Dil Bahadur Khangaha, another consumer of a local community forest in the district. He urged the concerned authorities to manage the tools and set up a rescue and treatment facility for the rescued wildlife’s rehabilita-tion in the district.

C M Y K

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021 | 04

OPINION

To a section of Nepali society, the ejec-tion of Sher Bahadur Deuba from prime ministership in October 2002 by king Gyanendra heralded a Panchayat redux. For those of us who had lived through the Panchayat years, the days that followed the royal move certainly felt like being transported to pre-1990 Nepal—mainly through the monoto-nous recital on TV and radio of names of individuals and organisations sup-porting Gyanendra’s putsch. As was to be expected, government newspapers also followed up by publishing long lists of those selfsame along with the words they used to welcome their mon-arch’s actions.

Given a political class that never seemed to tire of the perennial game of one-upmanship even in the face of a growing Maoist insurgency, it was somewhat natural that there would be some who would welcome anything that interrupted the downward drift of the country. Since it was also the pal-ace’s imperative that the list of pre-sumed supporters continue to grow or at least appear to do so, the ritual suit-ed both sides. Hence, while those known for their royalist sympathies figured in the media so did many oth-ers not that well known, but who none-theless were given equal prominence by the government mouthpieces.

One unexpected surprise was the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN), the umbrella body representing Nepal’s Janajatis. As a group that had been very instru-mental in propagating the narrative of how the centuries’ old marginalisation of the country’s various social groups was a result of the exclusive nature of the monarchical state, it came as a shock that NEFIN should side with the king instead of clamouring for a more meaningful democracy. I came to know later that many of those affiliated with NEFIN were livid that such a statement had gone out in their name. But at the time it appeared to be a sign of frustra-tion that after years of government soft-pedalling the promise of creating mechanisms to help Janajatis merge into the national mainstream, there were some in NEFIN who believed that the king could be their saviour—despite all the historical evidence to the contrary.

Unlike two decades ago, NEFIN remained uncharacteristically quiet for a full month over the dissolution of Parliament by Prime Minister KP Oli. It is probably a sign of how irrelevant an organisation that claims to speak for nearly 40 percent of the population

had become that it did not even bother to take a position for so long on an issue with direct implications on its constitu-ents. Fortunately, when it finally did, the NEFIN leadership appears to have understood that the answer to an imperfect democracy can never be its total abandonment.

That is a realisation that does not seem to have been lost to at least one group of influential actors. Among the first to raise the spectre of the prime minister’s move being the beginning of a new round of retrogression was an impromptu coalition of mainly writers and activists calling themselves the ‘Grand Citizens’ Movement’. Led by writer Yug Pathak, the Movement put out a statement, stating that while they could not be less bothered about the inner workings of a political party, they were very concerned about the grave danger posed by the outfall of this intra-party wrangling to republi-canism, federalism, secularism and inclusion; that it was a step likely sup-press the voices of the marginalised groups and the impoverished; and that since it is the political parties them-selves collectively responsible for tak-ing the country to this brink, the par-ties should renew their commitment to the people once again and take a strong stance against the regressive step. Given its representation of an impres-sive cross-section of Nepali society, this group’s claim that the parliamentary dissolution is a direct assault on the gains of the past decade and a half certainly provided it with greater cre-dence than a group like NEFIN’s would.

Despite all the misgivings about the 2015 constitution among those who believed that it had short-changed the excluded, there is now growing realisa-tion that even those gains may be in

danger. Therein lies the rub. Any suc-cessful civic movement against Oli’s blatant power grab will necessarily result in someone else taking his place. But when it comes to a betrayal of the promises of a ‘New Nepal’ and the cre-ation of a more just and inclusive soci-ety, none of the possible contenders to take his place have a record that is much better. Not even Pushpa Kamal Dahal even though it has to be admitted that the Maoist movement certainly provided the initial momentum towards it. The only difference is that Oli at least has had the honesty to spell it out while the others generally hide behind obfuscating rhetoric. The end result has been the same—the backslid-ing on inclusion in the 2015 constitu-tion compared to the 2007 one is there for all to see.

Another example is how the rollout of federalism has proceeded. The prime minister has been lambasted from var-ious quarters, even from some of his most stout defenders like the Gandaki Chief Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung that at almost every step he has under-mined the spirit of federalism. Yet over these three years, I do not ever recall Messrs Nepal and Dahal taking Oli to task over it. If, as they now argue, the latter needs to be removed since he violated the principle of collective party leadership, it is a wonder that they never made an issue of the need to strengthen federalism given its basic premise of promoting greater inclu-sion. That they got worked up every time Oli handed out plum posts only to those in his own coterie says a lot about where their real interests lay.

The same is true of the Nepali Congress leadership. Neither Sher Bahadur Deuba nor Ram Chandra Poudel have spoken out against Oli’s

blatant centralising of state power in his office at precisely the time the cen-tre was supposed to be delegating authority all the way down to the vil-lages. We certainly do not know the full content of the periodic tête-à-têtes between Deuba and Oli but media reports suggest these have focused on haggling over the apportionment of government positions between their own supporters.

Writer Narayan Wagle hit home when he recently said that people are not going to come into the streets if the current civic movement was going to result only in a change in the prime minister. He called on the party leaders to declare that they are against this backward step and draft a charter iden-tifying where they went remiss after the 2006 People’s Movement. The last is not such a tall order since we were treated to some show of contrition in the lead up to the 2006 movement, including one of the famous 12 points in the agreement that spawned the movement dealing specifically with it.

The sad fact is we have no choice but to go with the political parties and those who lead them and just hope we get lucky. Following the physical assault on their national legislature, the American political class looked and sounded visibly shaken. They can be thankful that their institutions were able to withstand the stress test visited upon them by an outgoing president, with the nearly two and a half centu-ries of legal traditions and political norms to fall back on. Ours is a very young democracy and we have an even younger polity. Oli’s crime has been to subject both to a similar test when the foundations have not even been set property. History will not be kind to him.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in agriculture has several dimensions. Scholars around the world are debat-ing whether FDI in agriculture is desirable or not. This division is part-ly associated with a particular school of thought. The capitalist school, gen-erally, does favour FDI in agriculture as any investment. The socialist school opposes it. But these dogmatic views changed after the 2007-08 global food price hike. Currently, most food-deficit countries are interested in FDI in agriculture for food security purposes.

In the traditional view, the highest negative magnitude of opposition is related to the access to land which is generally depicted as land grabbing. Other worrisome aspects are water and the environment. However, people think that employment, market access, infrastructure, food security, technology transfer, education, work-ing conditions and health aspects of FDI in agriculture are positive facets.

Transparency, social justice and the environment are major concerns asso-ciated with FDI in agriculture. Still, scholars are struggling to access the exact data on FDI due to hesitation to disclose all information for fear of capital flight. Interestingly, a recent amendment to the Foreign Direct Investment and Technology Transfer Act in Nepal has not been considered

as a routine phenomenon. Several conspiracy theories have surfaced regarding the intention of the govern-ment in making this sudden amend-ment.

For a long time, Nepal has been pro-tecting the primary agriculture sector from FDI. However, the secondary sec-tor of agriculture was still open to foreign investors. For example, estab-lishing a dairy industry, juice factory or tea processing plant, among others, was not prohibited under this act. The 20-year vision document for the agri-cultural sector, Agriculture Development Strategy 2015-35, which has been endorsed by the Cabinet, has also prohibited FDI in primary sec-tors. Several interest groups had actively, but unsuccessfully, lobbied to have FDI opened in the primary sector during the preparation phase of the Agriculture Development Strategy.

Do we benefit?It is worth discussing the potential advantages and disadvantages of FDI in agriculture. Theoretically, econo-mists believe that FDI not only brings capital but also technology and employment to the recipient. Most FDI was found to be directed towards areas where investment in agriculture is extremely low. In Nepal’s case, pub-lic investment is much lower. The farm budget has never crossed 3 per-cent of the gross domestic product even though agriculture accounts for two-thirds of the jobs. In this scenario, FDI can be looked at positively; but the issue is whether any big deal can be expected from foreign capital, consid-ering the existing political and socio-economic setting.

Currently, capital is not a primary issue in Nepal’s farm sector. Many motivated youths, and even some cor-porations, are investing in agricul-ture. Furthermore, despite a low budg-etary allocation, the government has instituted the provision of subsidised credit facilities for the target sector including agriculture. This provision is pivotal for offsetting the investment

gap in the agriculture sector. But poor demand for such credit facilities part-ly indicates that, in the current situa-tion, investment deficiency might not be an immediate issue. If Nepal gets technological inputs from FDI, demand for capital may also increase.

Doing Business is one of the most important indexes which reflects the perspective of FDI inflow. In the latest Doing Business Report 2020, Nepal ranks 94 with a Doing Business score of 63.2 which is a weighted average of several sub-indexes ranging from 37th

rank (Getting Credit) to 175th rank (Paying Taxes). Nepal ranks in a rela-tively lower position regarding enforc-ing contracts, getting electricity, start-ing a business, dealing with construc-tion permits, registering property, resolving insolvency and protecting minority investors. Similarly, trading across borders is also a relatively diffi-cult task to perform in Nepal. Considering these issues, a huge inflow of FDI, especially in agricul-ture, is not likely to happen.

The last three years were considered

to be a stable period in Nepali politics. However, the recent political turmoil has destabilised the political setting. An unstable political system has a sig-nificant and direct effect on the confi-dence of the business community. Furthermore, the landholding struc-ture and cost of labour and other fac-tors are not attractive for significant FDI. In the last fiscal year, despite the strong message of political stability, just four foreign-funded agro and for-estry-based industries were registered in Nepal. The per-unit cost of the pro-

jects is just Rs133.75 million and the per-unit employment is just 45 people.

Empirical results suggest that FDI inflow is not significant even in coun-tries having a good track record in agricultural exports. Brazil, the Netherlands, India, Thailand, Australia and the United States are a few among them. According to the lat-est statistics of the Department of Industry, there were 5,052 FDI-funded projects in Nepal as of the fiscal year 2019-20. Among them, the services sec-tor attracted the highest number of projects whereas agriculture and for-estry-based sectors received just 288 projects. Furthermore, the cost per project (Rs30.73 million ) and employ-ment per project (36 jobs) were also the lowest in agriculture and forest-ry-based projects.

Few takersThose statistics are of secondary agri-culture industries. More interestingly, the profit margin for the secondary sector is far greater than for the pri-mary sector (production). India has also opened agriculture to FDI. Despite having larger landholdings and various benefits and subsidies compared to Nepal, a significant amount of FDI has not been observed in India.

Strong screening, monitoring and evaluation are critical factors for suc-cess. Moreover, FDI should be restrict-ed in the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy priority crops if the real intention of the government is to pro-mote export. Further, there is not much empirical evidence showing that FDI in agriculture stimulates eco-nomic growth. Therefore, both extreme instigation and frustration are not necessary for FDI in agricul-ture. Even then, a strong safety net must be in place to ensure that no single marginal farmer is harmed from FDI in agriculture.

GC is an officer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.

Do we want FDI in agriculture?There are few studies showing that foreign investment in farming stimulates growth.

KP Oli put Nepal’s young democracy to the test, and the political class helped him do it.

ARUN GC

DEEPAK THAPA

Oli’s legacy of shameEDITORIAL

The pandemic continues to disrupt our lives, more so for migrant workers and their families who took a direct hit as the world enforced stringent measures, including the closure of borders to contain the spread of the coronavirus. In March 2020, when the Oli administration enforced a nationwide lock-down with little planning or preparedness to deal with a public health emergency of this scale, migrant workers in the destina-tion countries were left to fend for themselves, with little or no support from our diplomatic missions there.

Migrant workers have long been exploited and duped by bro-kers, manpower agencies and recruiters in the destination countries. They have often found themselves living and work-ing in slavelike conditions with little attention and support from the government. The economic crisis that followed the spread of Covid-19 across the world just aggravated their situa-tion. Jobs disappeared overnight, workers were broke and even dwelled on the streets, and had no means to return home. While workers who still had their jobs continued to work, most of them were slaving for reduced wages or no salaries at all. Countless stories of their miseries over the past nine months continue to be ignored and sidelined while the unfolding crisis affects workers and their families disproportionately.

As the government continues to repatriate migrant workers, there is scant assessment of how the crisis has impacted them and their families or how it will unfold in 2021. There is no roadmap to follow through on the ambitious commitments and tall claims made repeatedly to reintegrate migrant workers and create jobs. There is a failure to understand that ignoring these issues upfront will only bring severe implications to the coun-try and communities affected the most. The government con-tinues to neglect the migrants who bear the brunt of an uncer-tain future.

Time is an invaluable resource as much as it is irreversible. It is unclear how the next several months will unfold for migrant workers deep in debt and whose only source of liveli-hood has evaporated. But there are no indications of timely interventions to fix this worrying situation as their financial situation deteriorates. There are already reports that returnees struggle to purchase daily food and face difficulties to pay back their loans with high interest. There is an urgent need to create livelihood opportunities for the returnees by utilising their skill and ensuring that their rights, benefits and any compensa-tions they are entitled to by law are honoured.

The government must develop sustainable programmes and initiatives and mobilise resources to implement a support sys-tem that ensures economic opportunities for workers who have returned with skills and experiences. It’s not going to be easy to create jobs amid an unfolding crisis, but the government must also take this as an opportunity to right the wrongs, which have made the country vulnerable in the first place.

The government must start with clear intentions and take stock of the developing situation while parallelly use its diplo-matic channels to negotiate rightful compensation from the labour destination countries. It must also maintain robust documentation of the returnees and exercise existing legal provisions to utilise the Foreign Employment Welfare Fund, which can be spent on welfare projects and compensation to assist workers and their families in these tumbling times. The fund was envisioned for situations as we have right now, and it is the workers themselves who contributed to it. There should be no delay in the disbursement of financial relief to migrant workers when they need it the most.

SHUTTERSTOCK

Relief for the returnees There should be no delay in the disbursement of

financial relief to migrant workers.

AS I LIKE

POST FILE PHOTO

C M Y K

05 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021

MONEY

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FOREX

US Dollar 117.16

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Pound Sterling 160.51

Japanese Yen 11.29

Chinese Yuan 18.12

Qatari Riyal 32.17

Australian Dollar 90.56

Malaysian Ringit 28.96

Saudi Arab Riyal 31.23Exchange rates fixed by Nepal Rastra Bank

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Vivo launches Y51 in Nepal

KATHMANDU: Vivo has announced the launch of its latest mid-range smart-phone, the Y51, in Nepal. This new addition to the youth-oriented Y series will house 8GB RAM+128GB ROM for the usage of multiple apps with ease, states the press release issued by the company. The new smartphone features an AI triple camera set up. The device sports a 48MP main rear camera with various built-in shooting modes including Super Night Camera, stylish night fil-ter to enable users to capture ultra-clear shots, day and night. It also comes equipped with a massive 5,000mAh battery complemented by 18W fast charge technology. The device is launching exclusively in Daraz at an attractive price of Rs33,499.

Ncell to give free bonus data when upgrading SIM from 3G to 4G

KATHMANDU: Ncell Axiata Limited launched a new exciting scheme for customers who change their SIM from 3G to 4G. Customers who upgrade their SIM to 4G will now get 2GB 4G data for free. The new offer has been launched as part of the com-pany’s ongoing campaign #FastForwardLife that aims to encourage everyone to reimagine the future and fast forward their life with the power of digital, reads the press release issued by the company. With 4G, customers can experience high-speed internet for many online activi-ties including gaming, streaming video, social media, online classes, and many more. The bonus 4G data that customers get in this offer is valid for 7 days.

BIZLINE

Nepal issues new regulations regarding foreign investment

KRISHANA PRASAINKATHMANDU, JAN 20

Foreign investors in Nepal need to bring 70 percent of their proposed investment before beginning opera-tions, and the rest in the next two years, according to a new regulation issued under the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act (FITTA).

The regulation, which was pub-lished in the Nepal Gazette on January 11, also says that investors have to transfer the capital they have pledged within a year of their project being approved.

And for the first time, foreign inves-tors will be issued identity cards according to the size of their investment.

Investors putting in Rs50 million to Rs250 million are categorised as ‘gen-eral foreign investors’. Those spend-ing between Rs250 million and Rs1 billion are classified as ‘special for-eign investors’, and investors making an investment of more than Rs1 bil-lion are called ‘very special foreign investors’.

The identity cards will be provided to all foreign investors and their offi-cial representatives.

Business visas will be issued to for-eign investors or their official repre-sentatives and their family members as per the investment portfolio.

Investors or their official represent-atives and their family members will get residential visas if they make an investment of $1 million at one time.

“The new provision will eliminate the practice of delaying the invest-ment plan after getting the go-ahead

and extending the deadline,” said Jiblal Bhusal, director general of the Department of Industry.

Under the new regulation, foreign investors whose firms have been reg-istered in Nepal for more than a year must submit their working procedure within six months.

Foreign investors are categorised according to the amount of capital they bring into the country, and they receive facilities accordingly, Bhusal said.

“The regulation is clear about the repatriation of royalties and profits, and the process of expanding their enterprises.” The FITTA was amend-ed in 2019, and the regulation was introduced to define it with greater clarity, he said.

As per the recently issued regula-tion, foreign investors can buy 100 percent of the stock of companies registered in Nepal. They can make lease investments in aircraft, ships, construction equipment and machin-eries with certain restrictions.

If any Nepali company has made a technology transfer agreement with more than one investor, the repa-triation of royalty in one fiscal year may not exceed 5 percent of total sales, excluding taxes, in case of goods sold within the country, and 10 percent of total sales, excluding taxes, in case of goods exported to foreign countries.

The regulation allows any foreign company to open a branch in Nepal by getting its foreign direct investment approved as per existing law.

According to the new regulation, if any foreign invested company makes

changes in the earned property, assets or shares, it should apply with the related documents within 30 days of the transaction.

If any foreign investor wants to repatriate the profits, the decision should be approved by the company’s annual general meeting.

If foreign investors, who have received approval to invest in the energy, production, infrastructure or mine sectors, are unable to buy the required land through their own efforts, they can apply to a govern-ment agency with the proper documents. The new regulation has allowed manufacturing industries with foreign investment to open retail sales desks on their premises after getting approval from the related gov-ernment bodies.

The director general of the Department of Industry can order an investigation in response to com-plaints from foreign investors regard-ing industry registration, regulation and inspection,

The director general can order any head of the Department of Industry to conduct an investigation if it receives information that any company with foreign investment has engaged in activities beyond the conditions laid down by it.

Bhusal expects that the new regula-tion will facilitate foreign investment.

The department received foreign investment pledges of around Rs38 billion in the last fiscal year 2019-20. Investment commitments in the first half of the current fiscal year totalled around Rs21 billion, said Bhusal.

Nepal aims to become a middle-in-come country and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. But the current level of invest-ment is not enough for the country to reach the middle-income stage from the current low-income status as targeted, according to a World Bank report.

One of the major sources of bridg-ing the financing gap is foreign direct investment, but Nepal is among the countries attracting the lowest amount of investment in recent years.

The Systematic Country Diagnostic Report published by the World Bank in February last year revealed that foreign direct investment averaged just 0.2 percent of the gross domestic product over the last decade, which is one of the lowest in the world.

Pandemic, surging food prices leave many in Asia hungry, UN report saysASSOCIATED PRESSNEW YORK, JAN 20

United Nations agencies are warning that more than 350 million people in the Asia-Pacific region are going hungry as the coronavirus pandemic destroys jobs and pushes food prices higher.

The report issued on Wednesday by four agencies says the pandemic is making it difficult for 1.9 billion peo-ple to afford healthy diets. It follows an earlier report that forecast that in a worst case scenario that 828 million people might suffer from acute hunger because of the crisis.

The latest estimate is that nearly 688 million people globally are undernourished, more than half of them in Asia. The largest share is in South Asian countries like Afghanistan, where four in 10 people are malnourished.

The report is mostly based on data up to 2019, before the pandemic struck. But it also estimates that an addition-al 140 million people were likely to have fallen into extreme poverty in 2020 due to the impact of virus outbreaks and lockdowns. By the end of last year, some 265 million were estimated to be facing acute food insecurity.

A key factor is food affordability, a problem in wealthy nations like Japan as well as impoverished places like East Timor and Papua New Guinea,

said the report issued by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization.

Disruptions and job losses due to the pandemic are preventing families from getting enough to eat in many places. That’s evident in the long lines seen at food banks even in the United States.

In India, broken supply chains and transport problems, especially during pandemic lockdowns, have pre-vented surplus grain stocks from reaching all those in need. Day labourers and migrants are the most vulnerable, despite a massive public distribution system that entitles 75 percent of the rural population and half of those living in cities to subsi-dized food grains.

Since eligibility for such pro-grammes is based on a census that is nearly a decade old, many urban poor and migrants cannot tap those resources.

Across Asia, high prices for fruits, vegetables and dairy products have made it “nearly impossible” for low income families to have healthy diets, the report said. FAO data show food prices rose to their highest level in nearly six years in November.

Many in the region instead end up consuming high-calorie, cheap pro-cessed foods that contribute to prob-lems with obesity and diabetes but lack vitamins and minerals.

Biden’s first year could see record job growth. More will be neededREUTERSWASHINGTON, JAN 20

Joe Biden’s first year in office could go down in history as a record-breaker on the job-creation front, with an explosion in hiring expected as the coronavirus vaccine rollout allows Americans to emerge from a year in hiding.

It may not be enough.Only slightly more than half of the

22 million jobs lost in the pandemic were regained by the end of last year. Even if 2021 hiring shatters the post-World War Two record of 4.27 million jobs created in 1984, roughly a quarter of those who lost work could still be on the sidelines, with bleak prospects for regaining their vocations in an economy reshaped by the pandemic.

As Biden takes the oath of office on Wednesday, the job market await-ing him presents a monumental challenge.

Just a year ago, a record-long expan-sion was creating more opportunities

and higher pay for women, minorities and other workers on the margins. These same groups—key to his elec-tion victory—were disproportionately

harmed by pandemic job losses in service-sector jobs that face the long-est road to recovery.“It’s not only about recouping what we’ve lost, it’s

recouping what could have been,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist for Grant Thornton. “You need a lot of tail wind to get there.”Biden unveiled an ambitious $1.9 trillion plan last week for shoring up the economy by enhancing jobless benefits and provid-ing more direct cash payments to households.

A second phase of his plan is expect-ed to boost job creation through investments in infrastructure, clean energy projects and education. It is unclear how many of his proposals will pass through Congress, but Democrats’ slim majority in the Senate may help. Janet Yellen, the former Federal Reserve Chair and Biden’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, urged lawmakers on Tuesday to act aggressively. “Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now—and long-term scarring of the economy later,” Yellen said during her confirmation hearing.

That fiscal support, if delivered, could be bolstered by another

tailwind: Easy monetary policy from the Fed.

Fed officials committed last year to a new framework that aims for “broad-based and inclusive” employment. Under the new approach, policymak-ers will no longer raise interest rates pre-emptively when the labour market is heating up in anticipation of faster inflation. Instead, rates will stay low for longer, giving the econo-my more time to benefit disadvan-taged workers.

“They’re going to keep their foot on the accelerator even beyond the time when we’re at full employment,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. Combine that with additional fiscal support, and you sud-denly have “a lot of policy juice to the economy,” he said. It took more than six years for the US labour market to recoup all of the jobs lost during the last recession. Policymakers are expecting the recovery to happen more quickly this time around with the help of effective vaccines.

IMF chief sees ‘high degree of uncertainty’ in global outlookREUTERSWASHINGTON, JAN 20

The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday said the global lender needed more resources to help heavily indebted countries, citing a highly uncertain global economic outlook and a grow-ing divergence between rich and poor countries.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who has long advocated a new allocation of the IMF’s own cur-rency, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), said doing so now would give more funds to use address both the health and economic crisis, and accelerate moves to a digital and green economy.

Under outgoing President Donald Trump, the United States, the IMF’s largest shareholder, has blocked such a new SDR allocation, a move akin to a central bank printing money, since it would provide more resources to richer countries since the alloca-tion would be proportionate to their shareholding.

Swedish Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson, the new chair

of the IMF’s steering committee speaking at an online news conference with Georgieva, said it was clear the need for liquidity remained great, and she would consult with member countries on options for expanding liquidity.

Andersson, the first European to head the International Monetary and Financial Committee in more than 12 years and the first women, started her three-year term https://www.reuters.com/article/us-imf-leadership/imf-steering-committee-names-swedish-fi-nance-minister-as-next-chair-idINKB-N28R360 in the role on Monday.

Georgieva said the IMF had rapidly increased concessional financing to emerging market and developing economies, including through dona-tions by member countries of some $20 billion in existing SDRs. That would continue to play an important role, but further steps were needed, she said.

“It will continue to be so important, even more important, for us to be able to expand our capacity to support countries that have fallen behind,” Georgieva said.

India asks Facebook’s WhatsApp to withdraw privacy policy updateREUTERSNEW DELHI, JAN 20

India’s technology ministry has asked WhatsApp to withdraw changes to its privacy policy the messaging platform announced earlier this month, saying the new terms take away choice from Indian users.

The demand creates a new head-ache for WhatsApp and its US parent Facebook, which have placed big bets on the South Asian nation to expand their payments and other businesses.

“The proposed changes raise grave concerns regarding the implications for the choice and autonomy of Indian citizens,” the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology wrote in an email to WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart dated January 18.

“Therefore, you are called upon to withdraw the proposed changes,” the ministry wrote in the letter seen by Reuters.

WhatsApp said in a statement it was working to address misinformation and remains available to answer any questions. “We wish to reinforce that

this update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook,” it said.

California-based Facebook invested $5.7 billion last year in the digital unit of Indian conglomerate Reliance with a huge part of that aimed at drawing in tens of millions of traditional shop owners to use digital payments via WhatsApp.

With 400 million users in India, WhatsApp has big plans for the coun-try’s growing digital payments space, including selling health insur-ance via partners.

Those aspirations could take a hit if Indians switch to rival messengers

such as Signal and Telegram, down-loads of which have surged after WhatsApp said on January 4 it could share limited user data with Facebook and its group firms.

It is of “great concern” that Indian users have not been given the choice to opt out of this data sharing with Facebook companies and they are being given less choice compared to the app’s European users, the tech ministry letter said.

“This differential and discriminato-ry treatment of Indian and European users is attracting serious criticism and betrays a lack of respect for the rights and interest of Indian citizens who form a substantial portion of WhatsApp’s user base,” it said.

The ministry asked WhatsApp to respond to 14 questions including on the categories of user data it collected, whether it profiled customers based on usage and cross-border data flows.

The company said last week it would delay the new policy launch to May from February, after facing criti-cism from users in India and else-where to the new terms.

Foreign investors need to bring 70 percent of their proposed investment before beginning operations, and the rest in the next two years.

POST PHOTO

The five-star standard 45 Keys Boutique Resort in Kaskikot, Pokhara built with foreign direct investment from Singapore has postponed its opening date due to the coronavirus.

The company said last week it would delay the new policy launch to May from February.

REUTERS

US President-elect Joe Biden talks with workers as he tours the Wisconsin Aluminium Foundry in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, US.

AP/RSS

A file photo shows a labourer eating a tomato at one of Asia’s biggest wholesale markets, Azadpur mandi, in New Delhi, India.

SMFDB BARUN SAND2085 CLBSL KSBBL BBC-2.79% -3.23% -3.35% -3.38% -3.82% -3.95%

NBL SDLBSL NLG MFIL TRH GLBSL-1.94% -2% -2.22% -2.3% -2.42% -2.58%

NHDL PLI KRBL SIFC RLFL CFCL9.75% 9.75% 9.74% 9.72% 9.6% 9.55%

BFC CORBL SAPDBL GRDBL NABBC NFS9.94% 9.93% 9.88% 9.88% 9.87% 9.76%

C M Y K

BRIEFING

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021 | 06

WORLD

Six suspected militants killed in Russia’s ChechnyaMOSCOW: Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed leader said on Wednesday that his forces have killed six suspected militants, including a warlord accused of organizing a 2011 suicide attack at a Moscow airport. Ramzan Kadyrov, the regional leader of Chechnya, said that troops under his command had tracked down the suspects in the village of Katar-Yurt and killed all of them on the spot. Kadyrov claimed that the raid marked the elimination of the last group of militants that remained in the region. “All underground bands in Chechnya have now been eliminated,” Kadyrov said on his blog. He added that the security sweep had been planned long ago and followed two previous unsuccessful attempts to hunt down the militants. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin called to congratulate Kadyrov, who personally took part in the security sweep.

Zimbabwe’s foreign minister dies of Covid-19HARARE: Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo, who gained prominence in 2017 as the military general who announced the coup against then-president Robert Mugabe on television, has died from Covid-19, the government announced on Wednesday. He was 61. Moyo, previously little known to the public, became the face of the coup when he announced that the military had placed Mugabe under house arrest as the military’s armoured vehicles rolled into the capital, Harare. The coup ended Mugabe’s 37-year rule in Zimbabwe and he later died in September 2019. Moyo was appointed foreign affairs minister after President Emerson Mnangagwa took power with military backing. Moyo “succumbed to Covid-19 at a local hospital” on Wednesday. (AGENCIES)

India, ‘pharmacy of the world’, starts Covid-19 vaccine shipments to neighboursREUTERSNEW DELHI, JAN 20

India started delivering coronavirus vaccines to its neighbours on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said, flagging off a drive to garner goodwill in an often fractious region with the first shipment sent to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

Bangladesh and Nepal said they expected deliveries on Thursday. The only neighbour absent from India’s list apart from China, is regional rival Pakistan, which had not requested assistance, according to an Indian gov-ernment official.

Many low and middle-income coun-tries are relying on India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, for supplies to start Covid-19 immunisation pro-grammes and bring an end to their outbreaks.

“The Pharmacy of the World will deliver to overcome the Covid chal-lenge,” Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said on Twitter, adding the first vac-cine lots had reached Bhutan and the Maldives.

His ministry said on Tuesday “sup-plies under grant assistance” would be shipped to Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and the Seychelles also. Shipments to Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Mauritius were awaiting regula-tory clearances.

India authorised two vaccines this month for emergency use at home, one licensed from Oxford University and AstraZeneca and another developed at home by Bharat Biotech in partner-ship with the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research. Both are manu-factured locally.

At least two other vaccines are expected to be authorised by India in the next few months.

India initially will only ship the AstraZeneca vaccine, made by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, which brands the shot as COVISHIELD.

Bangladesh said it expected to receive a gift of two million doses of COVISHIELD from India on Thursday. The country of more than 160 million has yet to start its vaccination pro-gramme and has ordered a further 30

Trump pardons ex-strategist Bannon, dozens of othersASSOCIATED PRESSWASHINGTON, JAN 20

President Donald Trump pardoned former chief strategist Steve Bannon in the final hours of his White House term as part of a flurry of clemency action that benefited more than 140 people, including rap performers, ex-members of Congress and other allies of him and his family.

The last-minute clemency, announced after midnight on Wednesday, follows separate waves of pardons over the past month for Trump associates convicted in the FBI’s Russia investigation as well as for the father of his son-in-law.

Taken together, the actions under-score the president’s willingness, all the way through his four years in the White House, to flex his constitutional powers in ways that defy convention and explicitly aid his friends and supporters.

The final list was full of more con-ventional candidates whose cases had been championed by criminal justice activists. One man who has spent nearly 24 years in prison on drug and weapons charges but had shown exem-plary behaviour behind bars had his sentence commuted. So did a former Marine sentenced in 2000 in connec-tion with a cocaine conviction.

Even so, the names of prominent Trump allies nonetheless stood out.

One pardon recipients was Elliott Broidy, a prominent Republican fund-raiser who pleaded guilty last fall in a scheme to lobby the Trump adminis-tration to drop an investigation into the looting of a Malaysian wealth fund. Another was Ken Kurson, a friend of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner who was charged last October with cyberstalking during a heated divorce.

Bannon’s pardon was especially notable given that the prosecution was still in its early stages and any trial was months away. Whereas pardon recipients are conventionally thought of as defendants who have faced jus-tice, often by having served at least some prison time, the pardon nullifies the prosecution and effectively elimi-nates any prospect for punishment.

Bannon was charged in August with duping thousands of donors who believed their money would be used to fulfil Trump’s chief campaign prom-

ise to build a wall along the southern border. Instead, he allegedly diverted over a million dollars, paying a salary to one campaign official and personal expenses for himself. His co-defendants were not pardoned.

“Steve Bannon is getting a pardon from Trump after defrauding Trump’s own supporters into paying for a wall that Trump promised Mexico would pay for,” Rep Adam Schiff, D-Calif, said on Twitter. “And if that all sounds crazy, that’s because it is. Thank God we have only 12 more hours of this den of thieves.”

Other presidents have issued controversial pardons before leaving the White House. But perhaps no other commander in chief has so enjoyed using the clemency authority to benefit not only friends and acquaintances but also celebrity defendants and those championed by allies.

Wednesday’s list includes its share of high-profile defendants.

Among them were rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, both convict-ed in Florida on weapons charges. Others on the list included Death Row Records co-founder Michael Harris and New York art dealer and collector Hillel Nahmad.

Pardoned were former Rep Rick Renzi, an Arizona Republican who was sentenced to three years for corruption, money laundering and other charges, and former Rep Randy “Duke” Cunningham of California, who was convicted of accepting bribes from defence contractors. Cunningham, who was released from prison in 2013, received a condi-tional pardon.

Trump commuted the prison sen-tence of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who has served about seven years behind bars for a racket-eering and bribery scheme.

Alibaba’s Jack Ma makes his first public appearance in three monthsREUTERSSHANGHAI, JAN 20

Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma made his first public appearance since October on Wednesday when he spoke to a group of teachers by video, easing concern about his unusual absence from the limelight and sending shares in the e-commerce giant surging.

Speculation over Ma’s whereabouts has swirled in the wake of news this month that he was replaced in the final episode of a reality TV show he had been a judge on, and amid a regu-latory clampdown by Beijing on his sprawling business empire.

The billionaire, who commands a cult-like reverence in China, had not appeared in public since October 24, when he blasted China’s regulatory system in a speech at a Shanghai forum. That set him on a collision course with officials and led to the suspension of a blockbuster $37 bil-lion IPO for Alibaba’s financial affili-ate Ant Group.

Until then Ma often appeared in public, speaking at conferences and other events, though less frequently than in 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Alibaba and his charitable founda-tion both confirmed Ma, a former English teacher, participated in an online ceremony for rural teachers organised by the foundation on Wednesday. They declined to provide further comment.

In the 50-second video, Ma, wearing a navy pullover, spoke from a room with grey walls, a large painting and floral arrangements. It was not clear where the room was.

“It was good to see that Jack Ma has resurfaced – my assumption was that he decided (with some encourage-ment) to take a temporarily lower profile after making comments that annoyed the government,” said Dan Kern, chief investment officer of Alibaba investor TFC Financial Management in Boston whose funds hold positions in the stock.

Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares jumped to finish 8.5 percent higher on the news, which was first reported by Tianmu News, a media outlet backed by the government of Zhejiang, the province where Alibaba’s headquar-ters are based.

The company’s American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) rose near-ly 5 percent. The video also contained footage, dated January 10, of Ma visit-ing with colleagues a school in Tonglu county, part of Hangzhou city, the capital of Zhejiang.

India initially will only ship the AstraZeneca vaccine, made by Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker.

Europe’s Covid-19 Covidshot party gives way to Pfizer vaccine delay headacheZURICH: Pfizer Inc is facing criticism, and potential legal action, over its surprise move to temporarily delay Covid-19 vaccine shipments to European countries that fear disrup-tions could throw their inoculation campaigns into disarray.

British, then US and European approvals of Pfizer and BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine late last year prompted celebrations, only to be followed by

early-2021 anxiety as the reality sets in that vaccinating billions across the world will be fraught with unforeseen hurdles.

In Italy, the Covid-19 special com-missioner is considering legal action against Pfizer Inc after the US drug-maker and its German partner told the country it was cutting its deliver-ies by 29 percent.

German Health Minister Jens

Spahn was annoyed at the hiccup, as at least one state pushes back vaccina-tion centre openings as a consequence.

Pfizer and BioNTech announced last week that to scale up manufactur-ing in Europe to deliver many more doses in the second quarter they must first trim production at a Puurs, Belgium, vaccine-making plant.

They aim to be back on schedule by January 25, the companies said.

REUTERS

A healthcare worker receives a dose of AstraZeneca’s COVISHIELD vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India, during the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccination campaign at a medical centre in Mumbai, India.

million doses of the shot.Nepal said it has been pledged one

million doses free of charge by India.Pakistan has approved for emergen-

cy use the Chinese Sinopharm Covid-

19 vaccine and another developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, but has not got any supplies yet.

India, which has reported the high-est number of coronavirus infections

after the United States, has so far vac-cinated 786,842 frontline workers after starting the campaign on Saturday, the federal health ministry said on Wednesday.

Bannon’s pardon was notable given that the prosecution was still in its early stages.

>> Continued from page 1

Harris—the child of immigrants, a stepmother of two and the wife of a Jewish man—“carries an intersec-tional story of so many Americans who are never seen and heard.”

Harris, 56, moves into the vice pres-idency just four years after she first came to Washington as a senator from California, where she’d served as attorney general and as San Francisco’s district attorney. She had expected to work with a White House run by Hillary Clinton, but President Donald Trump’s victory quickly scrambled the nation’s capital and set the stage for the rise of a new class of Democratic stars.

After Harris’ own presidential bid fizzled, her rise continued when Biden chose her as his running mate last August. Harris had been a close friend of Beau Biden, the elder son of Joe Biden and a former Delaware attorney general who died in 2015 of cancer.

Biden, in his inaugural address, reflected on the 1913 march for wom-en’s suffrage the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, dur-ing which some marchers were heck-led and attacked.

“Today, we mark the swearing in of the first woman in American history elected to national office, Vice President Kamala Harris. Don’t tell me things can’t change,” Biden said.

Harris has often reflected on her rise through politics by recalling the lessons of her mother, who taught her to take on a larger cause and push through adversity.

“I was raised to not hear ‘no.’ Let me be clear about it. So it wasn’t like, “Oh, the possibilities are immense. Whatever you want to do, you can do,’” she recalled during a “CBS Sunday Morning” interview that aired Sunday. “No, I was raised to understand many people will tell you, ‘It is impossible,’ but don’t listen.’”

Harris’ swearing-in holds more symbolic weight than that of any vice president in modern times.

She will expand the definition of who gets to hold power in American politics, said Martha S Jones, a profes-sor of history at Johns Hopkins University and the author of “Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All.”

Her election to the vice presidency should be just the beginning of put-ting Black women in leadership posi-tions, Jones said, particularly after the role Black women played in organ-izing and turning out voters in the November election.

Biden’s predecessor’s absence underscored the healing that is needed.

Flouting tradition, Donald Trump departed Washington on Wednesday morning ahead of the inauguration rather than accompany his successor to the Capitol. Though three other

former presidents—Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama—gathered to watch the ceremonial transfer of power, Trump, awaiting his second impeachment trial, instead flew to Florida after stoking grievance among his supporters with the lie that Biden’s win was illegitimate.

Biden, in his third run for the presi-dency, staked his candidacy less on any distinctive political ideology than on galvanising a broad coalition of voters around the notion that Trump posed an existential threat to American democracy. Biden did not mention Trump by name in the early moments of his inaugural address but alluded to the rifts his predecessor had helped create.

“I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal and the harsh, ugly reality of racism, nativism, fear, demonisation that have long torn us apart,” Biden said. “This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward and we must meet this moment as the United States of America.”

Biden came to office with a well of empathy and resolve born by personal tragedy as well as a depth of experi-ence forged from more than four dec-ades in Washington. At age 78, he was the oldest president inaugurated.

Biden and Harris were sworn in during an inauguration ceremony

with few parallels in history. Tens of thousands of troops are on

the streets to provide security precise-ly two weeks after a violent mob of Trump supporters, incited by the Republican president, stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of Biden’s victory.

“Here we stand, just days after a riotous mob thought they could use violence to silence the will of the peo-ple,” Biden said. “To stop the work of our democracy. To drive us from this sacred ground. It did not happen. It will never happen. Not today, not tomorrow. Not ever. Not ever.”

The tense atmosphere evoked the 1861 inauguration of Lincoln, who was secretly transported to Washington to avoid assassins on the eve of the Civil War, or Roosevelt’s inaugural in 1945, when he opted for a small, secure ceremony at the White House in the waning months of World War II.

The day began with a reach across the aisle after four years of bitter partisan battles under Trump. At Biden’s invitation, congressional lead-ers from both parties bowed their heads in prayer in the socially dis-tanced service just a few blocks from the White House.

Biden was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts; Harris was sworn in by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina member of the Supreme Court. Vice President Mike Pence, standing in for Trump, sat nearby as Lady Gaga, holding a gold microphone,

sang the National Anthem accompa-nied by the US Marine Corps band.

Biden oversaw a “Pass in Review,” a military tradition that honours the peaceful transfer of power to a new commander in chief. Later, Biden, Harris and their spouses were to be joined by that trio of former presi-dents to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Ceremony.

Trump is the first president in more than a century to skip the inaugura-tion of his successor. In a cold wind, Marine One took off from the White House and soared above a deserted capital city to his own farewell cele-bration at nearby Joint Base Andrews. There, he boarded Air Force One for the final time as president for the flight to his Florida estate.

“I will always fight for you. I will be watching. I will be listening and I will tell you that the future of this country has never been better,” said Trump, who wished the incoming administra-tion well but once again declined to mention Biden’s name.

The symbolism was striking: The very moment Trump disappeared into the doorway of Air Force One, Biden stepped out of the Blair House, the traditional guest lodging for presi-dents-in-waiting, and into his motor-cade for the short ride to church.

Trump did adhere to one tradition and left a note for Biden in the Oval Office, according to the White House, which did not release its contents. And Trump, in his farewell remarks, hinted at a political return, saying “we will be back in some form.”

And he, without question, will shad-ow Biden’s first days in office.

Trump’s second impeachment trial could start as early as this week. That could test the ability of the Senate, poised to come under Democratic con-trol, to balance impeachment proceed-ings with confirmation hearings and votes on Biden’s Cabinet choices.

Biden was eager to go big early, with an ambitious first 100 days that includes a push to speed up the distri-bution of Covid-19 vaccinations to anxious Americans and pass a $1.9 trillion virus relief package. On Day One, he’ll also send an immigration proposal to Capitol Hill that would create an eight-year path to citizen-ship for immigrants living in the country illegally.

He also planned a 10-day blitz of executive orders on matters that don’t require congressional approval—a mix of substantive and symbolic steps to unwind the Trump years. Among the planned steps: rescinding travel restrictions on people from several predominantly Muslim countries; rejoining the Paris climate accord; issuing a mask mandate for those on federal property; and ordering agen-cies to figure out how to reunite chil-dren separated from their families after crossing the border.

Biden takes the helm as president: ‘Democracy has ...

AP/RSS

President Joe Biden speaks during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the US Capitol in Washington on Wednesday.

C M Y K

07 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021

SPORTS | MEDLEY

BRIEFING

Messi handed two-match banBARCELONA: Barcelona captain Lionel Messi has escaped a lengthy ban for lashing out at Athletic Bilbao’s Asier Villalibre in Sunday’s Spanish Super Cup final defeat and will only serve a two-game suspension. The Spanish football federation (RFEF) said on Tuesday Messi had been banned for two matches, meaning he will miss Thursday’s Copa del Rey last-32 tie at Cornella and Sunday’s La Liga match at Elche. Barca said they will appeal the ban. The Argentine was sent off at the end of extra time in the Super Cup final, which Barca lost 3-2, for striking Villalibre in the face.

Leverkusen beat Dortmund 2-1LEVERKUSEN: Moussa Diaby scored one goal and set up the winner for Florian Wirtz as Bayer Leverkusen beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 on Tuesday to snap a four-game winless run this year. The 21-year-old Frenchman ter-rorised the Dortmund defence throughout a one-sided first half when he fired the hosts in front, fin-ishing off a quick break in the 14th minute. Dortmund’s attack briefly sprung to life after the break and Julian Brandt curled in an equaliser in the 67th minute. Leverkusen rebounded, with Diaby launching another quick move and setting up Wirtz for the winner in the 80th to earn their first win in five league games. In another match, Borussia Moenchengladbach defeated Werder Bremen 1-0, thanks to Nico Elvedi’s second-half header.

Huntelaar rejoins SchalkeGELSENKIRCHEN: Dutch striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar rejoined Schalke 04 from Ajax Amsterdam on a short-term deal on Tuesday, with the 37-year-old tasked with adding fire-power to the Bundesliga club to help in their relegation fight. Huntelaar returns to Schalke having played for the German club from 2010-17. He scored more than 100 goals for the Bundesliga side and also won the German Cup in 2011.

Two more Australian Open players test positive for virusMELBOURNE: Two more Australian Open players tested positive for Covid-19, an official said on Wednesday. Victoria state police min-ister Lisa Neville said two players and a non-playing Australian Open participant comprised three new infections reported on Wednesday. A total of 10 people associated with the Grand Slam, including four players, have now tested positive for the virus. More than 70 players and their entou-rage are confined to their hotel rooms for 14 days and unable to train for the February 8-21 Australian Open after passengers on three charter flights returned positive tests. (AGENCIES)

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION

CROSSWORD

HOROSCOPE

SUDOKU

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19) ***You’ve never been shy, no matter what the sub-ject. You won’t be shy now, but if you start to feel a bit of it coming on, remind yourself that if anyone has the right to be confident, it’s you.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18) ***

If you’re at all worried that you might say or do something to offend someone, especially if you’re pretty sure about who it is, take someone along for the ride who’s equipped to mediate in situations such as this.

PISCES (February 19-March 20) ***You’re not in the mood to shop at the moment, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something out there that will appeal to you so much that you won’t go through hell to have it delivered to your door within 24 hours.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) ***If people came with warning labels, yours would say something like “Danger. Do not test me!” Heaven help anyone who decides that it might be fun to see just how far you can be pushed today.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) ****

Making a new friend isn’t easy for you, especial-ly now. You’re feeling even more secretive lately, so if you do decide to let someone in on what you’re feeling, they’d better understand just how special that makes them.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21) ****

If anyone knows how wonderful it is to have entertaining friends, it’s you. You’ve spent a whole lot of time cultivating such a crew, and you don’t take their affection lightly.

CANCER (June 22-July 22) ***You’ve always had a great relationship with your superiors. In fact, they often treat you as if you’re a peer, even like you’re part of a family. That’s exactly how you’ll feel now when the higher-ups come to you for advice.

LEO (July 23-August 22) ***

When you’re happy, everyone’s happy. Your fiery nature just won’t allow anyone to be depressed in your immediate vicinity, not if you can do anything about it. At the moment, you’re feeling pretty darned fine.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22) ***If you’re not sure about how to handle a certain situation that’s far too delicate for prime time, don’t mention it to anyone yet. You know as well as they do that there are still issues to be resolved, and until then, keeping quiet is best.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22) *****Relationships are always your number one pri-ority, but today that’s going to go double. Your lucky other half will enjoy all kinds of wonder-ful attention, all aimed at ensuring that they know how deeply you care.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21) ***

If anyone can make good plans and see them through to the end without even thinking about aborting the mission, it’s definitely you. You’re a planner and a plotter, equal parts detective and analyst.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21) ****Generosity and excess make a dangerous pair of qualities to tote around, and it takes a special kind of person to do it. Those are your burdens. For the most part, you’re up for the challenge and happy about it.

Army, Police share spoils in openerSPORTS BUREAUKATHMANDU, JAN 20

Departmental teams Tribhuvan Army Club and Nepal Police Club shared points after a 0-0 draw in the curtain raiser of National Women’s League foot-ball tournament played at the Dasharath Stadium in Tripureshwor on Thursday.

Army came closer to scoring early in the fourth minute when Police custodian Sapana Rai denied Bimala Chaudhary’s strike from outside the area. Sapana Lama again squandered scoring chances in one-versus-one situation with goalie Rai.

In the 31st, Niru Thapa of Police ended up firing inches wide after collecting poor clearance by Army defenders. Police thought they had taken the lead seven minutes later when Thapa’s strike on goal while goalie Rai was momentarily away from her position was defended by Kabita Dhimal.

One minute before the break, Army wasted a scor-ing chance when Rashi Ghising was denied by goalie

Rai in a one-on-one situation. In the 65th, Police’s Rekha Paudel ended up firing wide from the area. In the 71st, Police custodian Rai made a long stretch dive to deny Indira Rai’s strike from the edge of the area.

On Thursday Nepal Armed Police Force Club will vie with Chandrapur Municipality while Biratnagar Metropolitan will take on Waling Municipality. Both matches will be played at the ANFA Complex in Satdobato.

The tournament features seven teams in the dou-ble-leg format. It is the first time that women’s league is organised in the country in the double-leg format. The winners of the tournament will get a purse of Rs 1.5 million while the second placed team will get Rs 800,000.

Third and fourth positioned teams will walk away with Rs 500,000 and Rs 300,000 respectively. The best player will ride a two wheeler and best players in each of the four positions—goalkeeping, defence, midfield and forward—will earn Rs 50,000 apiece.

Army secure second win, Police bounce back after opening loss in PM Cup cricketSPORTS BUREAUKATHMANDU, JAN 20

Tribhuvan Army Club recorded their third win in a row to inch closer to semi-finals while Nepal Police Club bounced back from their opening match defeat in the Prime Minister Cup National one-day cricket tourna-ment in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

Army, who had overcome Gandaki and Karnali in their previous match-es, saw off Province 1 by four wickets to climb on top of Group ‘A’ with six points after third match at the Mulpani grounds. Province 1 are at the bottom of the table without any points after three matches. Province 1 elected to bat first and were bowled out for 131 runs in 40.1 overs. In reply, Army made 135-6 in 29.5 overs for the loss of six wickets.

Police, who have lost their first match against Bagmati Province by seven wickets, registered a resounding nine-wicket win over Sudurpaschim Province to open their account after second match at the TU grounds in Kirtipur. Police are third in Group ‘B’ standings with two points from as many matches while Sudurpaschim hit the bottom of the table and are pointless after two matches.

Put into bat first, Sudurpaschim were bowled out for 110 runs in 33.1 overs. Opener Khadak Bohara scored the highest 40 off 53 for Sudurpaschim before he was trapped leg before by Sagar Dhakal. He hit eight boundaries in his 53-ball knock.

Wicketkeeper batsman Sanju Damai contributed 35 runs facing 58 deliver-

ies with 91-3 on board. He hit five boundaries. But Sudurpaschim lost the remaining seven wickets for just 19 runs. Arun Airee (13 runs) and Arjun Saud (10 runs) were the other batsmen to touch double digits.

Police bowlers Sagar Dhakal and Dipendra Singh Airee grabbed four

wickets apiece. The man-of-the-match Dhakal gave away 18 runs in his 10-over bowling with three maiden overs. Airee conceded 10 runs in his 6.1 over bowling with two maiden overs.

In the run chase, Police openers Sunil Dhamala and Kushal Bhurtel hit

half centuries each as they made light work of the provincial team. The duo shared a 97-run partnership before Dhamala was caught by Airee off Hemant Dhami. He hit six boundaries and two sixes in his 57-ball knock. Bhurtel contributed an unbeaten 51 runs facing 44 deliveries. He hit nine fences and a six.

At the Mulpani grounds, Bibek Meheta scored 50 runs for Province 1. He shared a 77-run fourth wicket part-nership with Firdosh Ansari before being caught and bowled by Shahab Alam. He hit seven boundaries and a six. Ansari contributed 32 off 90 while opener Deepak Paswan (19 runs) and Dipesh Kandel (11 runs) were the other players to touch double digit figures.

Alam was the peak of Army bowl-ing claiming four wickets. The man of the match gave away 23 runs in his 9.1 over bowling with three maiden overs. Aakash Chand claimed three wickets.

In the run chase, Army too made a shaky start and were tottering at 41-4. But Rohit Paudel and Bhim Sarki lift-ed the innings playing a 50-run part-nership for the fifth wicket. Paudel scored the highest 36 runs for Army while Sarki contributed 29 runs. Rajesh Pulami remained unbeaten at 24 runs.

Province 1 bowlers Firdosh Ansari, Gyanendra Shrestha, Dipesh Kandel and Shuvankar Urao claimed one wicket each.

Lumbini will take on Police on Thursday at the Kirtipur grounds while Nepal APF Club will vie with Gandaki at the Mulpani grounds.

Army sit on top of Group ‘A’ standings with four points while Police thump Sudurpaschim to register their first victory.

Leicester pile more misery on ChelseaASSOCIATED PRESSLEICESTER, JAN 20

Five years after achieving the unthinkable, Leicester are making another improbable run at the title. For big-spending Chelsea and its under-pressure manager, Frank Lampard, any ambitions of winning the league already appear to be dashed.

Leicester beat Chelsea 2-0 on Tuesday to end the day at the top of table. Even if their latest time at the summit lasts just one night, Leicester are showing it means business again. Just like in the 2015-16 season, when the team managed by Claudio Ranieri famously delivered one of the biggest underdog triumphs in sporting histo-ry to win the league at odds of 5,000-1.

Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers said it was “still too early” to talk about his team as title contenders.

“We’re at the top of the league because we work hard, we’re not there by fluke,” said James Maddison, who scored Leicester’s second goal.

Wilfred Ndidi and Maddison scored in the first half as Leicester extended their unbeaten run in the league to six games, the last three all being wins.

Chelsea were carved open time and again at the King Power Stadium and fell to a fifth loss in their last eight games in the league, a run of results that leaves Lampard’s position precar-ious after the club’s spending spree of approaching $300 million ahead of this season.

“It intensified for me a while ago,” Lampard said. “Because the expecta-tions at this club, whether they are right or wrong, are always high. It’s not my decision [about whether he’ll stay as manager]. That’s something that will always be there.”

Lampard’s side dropped to eighth place, nine points behind Leicester. “Yeah, I’m worried,” Lampard said. “From the form we were in to get so quickly into the form that we are now in ... we should be better than that. It takes character to turn from that.”

As it stands, West Ham are heading into the second half of their Premier League campaign with just one senior striker. Fortunately for manager David Moyes, that striker is in-form Michail Antonio. He scored a match-winning goal for the second time in four days, his 66th-minute vol-ley earning West Ham a 2-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion.

His winner against Burnley on Saturday came on his first league start since recovering from a hamstring problem, the latest fitness issue to affect an injury-prone player who was one of the league’s best players after lockdown last summer. If Moyes can keep Antonio fit—and that’s always a big if—it isn’t too fanciful to see West Ham remaining in the vicinity of their current position of seventh.

POST PHOTO: HEMANTA SHRESTHA

Sunil Dhamala (left) and Kushal Bhurtel hit half-centuries each, sharing a 97-run partnership, to steer Nepal Police Club to a nine-wicket win over Sudurpaschim Province on Wednesday.

POST PHOTO: HEMANTA SHRESTHA

Tribhuvan Army Club’s Sharmila Thapa (left) and Nepal Police Club’s Amrita Jaisi in action on Wednesday.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021 | 08

CULTURE & LIFESTYLE

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What we now know—and don’t know—about the coronavirus variants

ANDREW JOSEPH

T

he coronavirus vari-ants are, in a word, confusing.

By now, you have likely heard about dif-ferent variants that

first raised trouble in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, and now maybe California—though the jury is very much out on whether that last one is cause for concern. To make a messy alphabet soup even more jumbled, these variants have unwieldy names, and they each contain mutations with unwieldy names of their own. The result is that people are left trying to differenti-ate among B.1.1.7 and N501Y and E484K and C-3PO.

Wait, sorry, that last one is from “Star Wars.”

The point is that all of this is difficult to keep track of, and it will only grow more confusing with more variants likely to turn up. “It’s becoming a mutation-of-the-week game,” said Stephen Goldstein, a corona virologist at the University of Utah.

Below, STAT explains what’s known about the variants, why they’re getting so much attention, and what they mean for the trajec-tory of the pandemic.

Why are variants popping up now?

Well, they are and they aren’t.SARS-CoV-2, the virus that

causes Covid-19, has been mutat-ing all along; that’s just what viruses do. Many of those muta-tions don’t change the virus sub-stantively, and some might actual-ly be detrimental to the virus, making that variant likely to die out.

But every so often, a mutation or combination of mutations will give rise to a new form of the virus with an evolutionary edge, like being able to infect cells better or spread faster. This new variant can outpace earlier iterations of the virus and become dominant.

Early on in the pandemic, a mutation known as D614G seems to have given the virus a boost in its infectiousness, and variants with the mutation became the most prevalent around the world.

Beyond the fact that the virus is constantly changing, there are other reasons why these “fitter” variants have started to emerge. In the early days of the pandemic, when just about all of us were vulnerable to Covid-19, any infec-tious variant had a pretty easy time circulating. But as more peo-ple in certain areas have become protected—either after an initial infection or vaccination—pres-sure on the virus has increased. A so-so spreader might no longer be able to find new hosts (that’s us) to infect, but variants with muta-tions that help them spread can still transmit, and can take off from there.

“We’ve reached a point one year on and in certain parts of the world where the density of natu-ral immunity is sufficient so that the variants that have got a fit-ness advantage … are more likely to emerge and spread,” said Wendy Barclay, the head of infec-

tious diseases at Imperial College London.

The variant that first appeared in the UK—and perhaps others as well—is a bit of a special situa-tion. Most people who have an acute case of Covid-19 will van-quish the virus after a relatively short period of time. But it’s thought that this variant, dubbed B.1.1.7, came from a person who was immunocompromised and had a rare chronic case, essential-ly providing an incubator for the virus to accrue mutations as it replicated for weeks or months in that person’s body. The virus, the hypothesis goes, then spread from that person to others.

If the virus is changing all the time, why are these variants setting off alarms?

For now, let’s focus on the vari-ants that emerged first in the UK, South Africa, and Brazil. (There are at least two variants in Brazil scientists are keeping an eye on).

These have the most evidence of greater transmissibility or some other characteristic that might be cause for concern. And, what’s more, they share some of the same mutations despite aris-ing independently. To scientists, that’s a clue that the mutations might confer some evolutionary advantage.

When scientists assess the impact of a new viral variant, they consider at least three fac-tors: disease severity, protection, and transmissibility.

For now, none of the variants seems to change how sick people get with Covid-19.

Answering the question of whether people with existing immunity to SARS-2 are still pro-tected—and whether the vaccines still work—is a bit more compli-cated. Scientists are testing vac-cines against the mutations and variants, and results should be

available in the coming weeks. But many experts have a fairly optimistic outlook on the vaccine question. The vaccines generate a multi-pronged immune response that recognises and targets differ-ent parts of the virus; changes caused by one mutation likely won’t make the virus invisible to protective antibodies generated by immunisations. And even if a mutation reduces the vaccines’ effectiveness a bit, the shots have been shown to be so powerful that they should work just fine even if their potency is taken down a notch.

Eventually, scientists think, the virus will accumulate the right combination of mutations to war-rant updating the vaccines, a not-that-difficult process for vac-cine makers. But it doesn’t appear

we’re at that point now (though plenty of studies are ongoing, and some are more anxious than oth-ers).

When it comes to transmissibil-ity, it seems that these variants do spread more easily—though there are wide-ranging estimates for just how much more infectious they are.

What does a more transmissible virus mean?

Because a more transmissible variant can infect more people more quickly, it leads to more cases overall without mitigation efforts. Even if people individual-ly aren’t likely to get sicker, the result is that there will be more hospitalisations and deaths. (One

caveat: Widespread vaccinations could prevent some of those.)

Faster-spreading viruses also require a greater proportion of a population to be protected for herd immunity to be achieved. Vaccine campaigns will have to reach even more people.

The arrival of more transmissi-ble variants is “bad news, because that means some places that had already started to see protective effects become vulnerable again,” said Caitlin Rivers, an infectious diseases epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

What’s happening in Brazil?

A recent study estimated that three-quarters of residents of the city of Manaus, Brazil had been

infected by SARS-2 by October. The hope was that this level of protection might act as a buffer against more transmission. But last month, cases started rising in the city and its state of Amazonas, straining local health systems once again.

When researchers dug into the viral sequences, they found many cases involved a new variant, called P.1, as reported last week. (P.1. has also been identified in people who travelled from Brazil to Japan.) They warned the muta-tions it contained (including E484K) are “potentially associat-ed with an increase in transmissi-bility or propensity for re-infec-tion of individuals.”

Scientists suspect there are sev-eral potential factors at work in

Manaus, which could be playing out together. They’re investigat-ing.

Maybe P.1 is indeed able to evade some existing immune protection, leaving people more susceptible to reinfection. Scientists on Sunday confirmed a case of reinfection caused by P.1 in Amazonas.

Or perhaps P.1 is so transmissi-ble that it can spread just fine even in communities with 75 per-cent protection.

Or what if some people in Amazonas who were infected months ago are just generally becoming susceptible again to any form of reinfection, regard-less of variants? Though immune responses vary, it’s thought that most people who fend off the virus will have lasting protection for some time—but that it will wane. Already, some reinfections have been reported around the world, without the involvement of more transmissible variants. (It’s thought that reinfections with SARS-2 will generally be milder for most people than their initial case because they still have some immune memory to the virus, even if their systems couldn’t block infection entirely. Scientists will be looking out to see if that holds with different variants.)

What are scientists doing about all this?

Studying it from all angles. One line of inquiry is examining the effects of mutations in isolation and in concert with the other changes dotting the virus’ RNA genome. Essentially, a mutation on its own may not have much of an impact, but it can help a virus spread better or replicate faster if it’s paired with certain other mutations.

Scientists are also on the look-out for other potential variants of concern as they comb through sequencing data. But there’s a

sense among some experts that new variants are being announced without much helpful informa-tion. Lots of mutations will be discovered; it can take some time to figure out what, if anything, each one means.

In California, for example, offi-cials held a press conference Sunday to discuss the L452R vari-ant. “We do not know whether it’s more infectious yet,” UCSF virol-ogist Charles Chiu said, though he added, “it is concerning that it may potentially be more infec-tious.”

Outside experts were quick to say that more evidence is needed before such a claim can be veri-fied. The variant was first seen in California in May, and hovered at low levels while the state was at low levels of virus overall. Then, it started to increase as the state was suffering from major out-breaks. This can create the illu-sion that the variant—because it’s so much more prevalent—was perhaps driving the cases. But without more data, it’s just as likely the variant didn’t cause the wave, but simply “went along for the ride,” Goldstein said.

And what can I do about it?

Commit to the same precautions that have been recommended for months, experts say. Perhaps invest in a better mask than a fabric face covering. Get vaccinat-ed when you can.

Public health authorities have been stressing that the new vari-ants aren’t solely responsible for the raging epidemics happening around the world. The United States has never really had a han-dle on its epidemic, and the most recent surge in cases was driven not by a more transmissible itera-tion of the virus, but because of lax policies and a lack of precau-tions.

“It’s too easy to just lay the blame on the variant and say, it’s the virus that did it,” Mike Ryan, the head of the World Health Organization’s emergencies pro-gram, said Friday. “Unfortunately, it’s also what we didn’t do that did it, and we have to be able to accept our share individually and as communities, as governments, our share of the responsibility in this virus getting out of control, while recognizing the variants in the virus make it difficult.”

The emergence of the variants has given experts a new line of argument in their regular pleas that people and governments should do all they can to drive down transmission generally. Slowing spread can buy time for more people to get vaccinated before one of the more transmis-sible variants becomes dominant — which could happen in the United States as soon as March, a model released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week showed.

And the more the virus spreads, the higher likelihood that even fitter variants will emerge. Evolution is driven not only by the environment the virus finds itself in, but also, as Barclay put it, “the number of times you roll the dice.”

— Stat News

Here’s why the variants are getting so much attention, and what they mean for the trajectory of the pandemic.

Netflix forecasts an end to borrowing binge, shares surgeLISA RICHWINE & EVA MATHEWSNEW YORK

N

etflix Inc said on Tuesday its global subscriber rolls crossed 200 million at the end of 2020 and projected it will no longer need to borrow billions of dol-lars to finance its broad slate of TV shows and movies.

Shares of Netflix rose nearly 13 percent in extend-ed trading as the financial milestone validated the company’s strategy of going into debt to take on big Hollywood studios with a flood of its own program-ming in multiple languages.

The world’s largest streaming service had raised $15 billion through debt in less than a decade. On Tuesday, the company said it expected free cash flow to break even in 2021, adding in a letter to sharehold-ers, “We believe we no longer have a need to raise external financing for our day-to-day operations.”

Netflix said it will explore returning excess cash to shareholders via share buybacks. It plans to main-tain $10 billion to $15 billion in gross debt.

“This is in sharp contrast to Disney and many other new entrants into the streaming market who expect to lose money on streaming for the next few years,” said eMarketer analyst Eric Haggstrom.

From October to December, Netflix signed up 8.5 million new paying streaming customers as it debut-ed widely praised series “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Bridgerton,” a new season of “The Crown” and the George Clooney film “The Midnight Sky.”

The additions topped Wall Street estimates of 6.1 million, according to Refinitiv data, despite increased competition and a US price increase. Fourth-quarter earnings per share of $1.19 missed analyst expecta-

tions of $1.39. With the new customers, Netflix’s worldwide mem-

bership reached 203.7 million. The company that pio-neered streaming in 2007 added more subscribers in 2020 than in any other year, boosted by viewers who stayed home to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Competition heats upNow, Netflix is working to add customers around

the globe as big media companies amp up competi-tion. Walt Disney Co in December unveiled a hefty slate of new programming for Disney+, while AT&T Inc’s Warner Bros scrapped the traditional Hollywood

playbook by announcing it would send all 2021 mov-ies straight to HBO Max alongside theaters.

Disney said in December it had already signed up 86.8 million subscribers to Disney+ in just over a year.

“It’s super-impressive what Disney’s done,” Netflix Co-Chief Executive Reed Hastings said in a post-earn-ings analyst interview. Disney’s success, he added, “gets us fired up about increasing our membership, increasing our content budget.”

Netflix said most of its growth last year--83 percent of new customers—came from outside the United States and Canada. Forty-one percent joined from Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

For January through March, Netflix projected it would sign up 6 million more global subscribers, behind analyst expectations of roughly 8 million.

Revenue for the fourth quarter rose to $6.64 billion compared with $5.47 billion a year ago, edging past estimates of $6.63 billion.

Net income fell to $542.2 million, or $1.19 per share, from $587 million, or $1.30 per share, a year earlier.

Netflix shares jumped 12.5 percent to $564.32 in extended trading on Tuesday.

— Reuters

From October to December alone, Netflix signed up 8.5 million new paying streaming customers.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, has been mutating all along; that’s just what viruses do.

The world’s largest streaming service had raised $15 billion through debt in less than a decade.

SHUT

TERS

TOCK

REUTERS