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This study analyzes the economic impact of the mutual tourism relationship between Nepal and India on the economies of both the countries. The main objective of this study is to study the exchange earning due to mutual tourism of both the countries and its effect on the economic development. Its method of study is to fit simple regression models for to analyze the trend of tourism of both the countries by using the use secondary data for this applying descriptive and analytical research design. In the discussion of this study, it is said that mutual tourism in Nepal and India as well as in the world community has helped to raise the country's foreign exchange earnings. Also, this study concludes that there is a positive relationship between tourist arrival and exchange earning. From this, tourism has made a great contribution to the economic development of both the countries. This is further confirmed by economic model R2 and P-value. The study demands more attention should paid for the development of tourism economy in both countries and tourism and travel facilities should improve to excess of tourism economy in Nepal and India.

Bilateral economic cooperation is one of means for improving economic, social and political relations between two countries. Nepal and China have been enjoying good neighborly respects and benefit since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1955. Both countries behave a good neighborhood relations and enjoyed fruitful bilateral cooperation and mutual support and following the social and economic development activities by exchanging cooperation in the areas of trade, tourism, investment and connectivity, building human capital and infrastructure and deepening people to people relations is at the center of Nepal-China bilateral relations. Within Nepal and China, there are marvelous possibilities promoting socio-economic transformation and raising the living standard of people through the mutual cooperation in the areas of mutual interest. Cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is of great significance for Nepal and China. The present study is conducted with the aim of examining the economic impact of bilateral economic cooperation between Nepal and China. The impact of bilateral cooperation with China in Nepalese economy has been analyzed in terms of FDI flows, trade between Nepal, China and economic assistance from China to Nepal and tourists arrivals from China over the period of 2000-2019 by applying simple statistical tools and simple linear regression model. The results show that there have been positive influences on Nepalese economy with bilateral economic cooperation of China.

Food security in mountain areas has always been a matter of concern. The purpose of this study is to examine the food security situation and coping strategies in rural households in a mountain area. Following the descriptive research approach, data is collected through implying household survey, semi-structured interview, and observation method. The food security situation is analyzed through four dimensions of food security: food availability, access to food, utilization of food, and stability. The result shows households depend mainly on markets as their main source of household food and households follow inadequate food consumption and the majority of households' food consumption patterns constitute either borderline or poor. Households apply short-term food consumption coping strategies such as lending money from friends or buying food on credit. The study recommends that farming households be supported in terms of both short-term and long-term strategies to improve food production and supply.

Health literacy refers to a person's knowledge and abilities to make sound health decisions in everyday life. The overall goal of this study was to discover the influence of health literacy on the health behaviour of college girls, using proportionate stratified sampling, 178 (55.27% females studying health and physical education (HPE) at Surkhet Campus, and HA/Staff Nurse at SEDA Campus, Surkhet were chosen. Researchers used a cross-sectional design for this study. The Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA) was used to assess health literacy, while the Self-Administered Questionnaire was used to assess health behaviour. As per the survey findings, 53.93% of respondents had appropriate health literacy. Health literacy plays a key role in physical activity and its duration. Furthermore, study revealed that health literacy has no role on campus girls' smoking, using alcohol, and health check-up behaviour. Finally, the research suggested that health literacy is required to include in higher education programmes.

This research paper is concern with the economic impact of tourism industry in Nepalese economy. Tourism industry is multi-industry and multi-product and tourist demand is complementary and has to be met by a number of goods and services, which are not only spatially disparate but also functionally different. The tourist product is of a highly perishable nature and the bulk of tourist facilities have an in-built inflexibility. It initially reviews the concert and using a model, it deals with the factors affecting the economic impacts associate with tourism. The economic impact is measured in terms of direct employment, foreign exchange earnings, GDP and government royalty due to the flow of total tourists arrival of tourists in different fiscal years by using linear regression model and correlation. Results reveal that there is positive economic impact of tourism industry in Nepalese economy.

Nepal has bitter experiences of trade deficit; it has become the tradition of the country. The trade deficit of Nepal has been widening since the decades. The statistical data shows that around 80 percent of imports are from India and China. The growth trend of foreign trade has been increasing in different years after year with a huge amount of trade deficit. As the size of foreign trade increased the trade deficit of Nepal has-been increasing as well. The government of Nepal has been announcing the deficit budget. This study focused to analyze the trends of trade deficit of Nepal and observing the relations of trade deficit and budget deficit. Simple statistical tools are applied to analyze the trend and growth of foreign trade of Nepal and correlation and simple linear regression model has been used to examine the linkages between trade deficit and budget deficit of Nepal. The study has found a strong positive relationship between trade deficit and budget deficit of Nepal. As result, there is a significant impact of budget deficit on trade deficit. The finding of the regression analysis indicates that budget deficit is a significant predictor of trade deficit.

Conventional farming is a new area of research in developing countries. It is rooted in industrial agriculture andfocuses on production as heavily. It demands a high amount of chemical fertilizers. The research follows a case study under the interpretive paradigm using multiple sources of evidence such as interviews, observations, and surveys ofthe literature. Usual to most conventional practices, the local inbreeds of crops are replaced by high yielding varieties of crops. One of the main advantages of conventional farming is the application of a higher amount ofagricultural inputs. The study has shown that the availability of transport made it easy to reach products to the market and has contributed to increasing the income of the farmers. Inadequate knowledge of the use of fertilizers and pesticides results in the origins of new diseases in crops is a major challenge of conventional farming. This research concludes that commercial organic farming can be an alternative to conventional farming. The finding shows the need for agricultural training and capacity building of farmers and also the need to provide subsidies so that farming will be more lucrative.

Foreign employment has become one of the major sources of households’ income for Nepalese society. Nepal has become one of the major labors exporting country. After 1990s, remittance is playing a crucial role for foreign currency earnings and favorable impact on balance of payment situation, to reduce the number of people in the country below the poverty line and ultimately to the economic growth of the nation. This paper tries to examine the economic impact of foreign employment on remittance as well analyze the growth and trends of foreign employment and remittance on development prospective in Nepalese economy. Some descriptive statistics such as percentage, ratio, pie-chart, bar diagram and line chart are used to explain the growth and trends of foreign employment as well as situation of remittance in Nepal. Correlation and linear regression model are used to analyze the impact of foreign employment on remittance. The inflow of remittance growth rate has positive association along with significant contribution of remittance to Gross Domestic Product in Nepalese economy. Also, foreign employment has important effect on remittance. Foreign employment is one of the effective instruments for poverty alleviation and social changes.

This library based paper appraises importance of transformative education in Nepalese context. In doing so, educational outcomes have been theorized based on Vedic educational philosophy, power and pedagogy as well as fourth goal of sustainable development (quality education for all). This paper comes up with conclusion that transformative education has been becoming international agenda for sustainable development. Nepalese policy also has focused on developing and utilizing human capital potentials. However, modern education system has been re/producing passive teachers and students even in Universities. Teachers are failed to produce critical students having fullest sense of civic virtues and justice that are enviable for maintaining just society. Thus, better to apply intrinsic, extrinsic and functional power and linking teaching with personal and social development while transmitting of knowledge in the process of socializing students and others. Government mechanisms also need to create conducive environment for letting university teachers to participate during policy formulation and implementation processes. Finally, it is better to apply contextual model for transformative education by the University teachers highlighted in this paper.

Local governments are the closest administrative units which deliver public services to the grassroots level of citizens. Local governments enhance the access of services to the citizens. Effectiveness of budget implementation depends on the absorptive capacity of local governments and local level transparency in their affairs. The effectiveness of budget implementation is measured in terms mobilization of local resources and development of surrounding. Through the local resource mobilization, countries accelerate their economic growth by raising and spending their own funds for public goods and services such as schools, hospitals, clean water, electricity and roads. Local government investment in their own public goods and services in infrastructure is also essential for attracting private investment and laying the foundation of long term economic growth. The Constitution of Nepal 2015 defines Nepal as a federal democratic republic organized three level governments as federal, province and local. Local governments are the development partners to the central government need to mobilize enough revenue locally to support the central government development agenda. Inadequate financial resources can undermine the effective implementation of developmental projects in Nepal. Budgets are important as they prudential manage scarce financial resources and at the same time serve as a means of expenditure authorization, control and evaluation base.

Ozonation has been used to effectively remove micropollutants from the secondary effluent in several wastewater treatment plants. It is known that ozonation transforms tertiary amine compounds into their respective N-oxides, however in an earlier study a mass balance could not be closed at elevated ozone concentrations, leading to the assumption that more ozonation products are possible. This study was conducted to elucidate which (hitherto unknown) ozonation products can be formed from venlafaxine and tramadol when ozonating wastewater. Ozonation experiments were performed with tramadol and venlafaxine N-oxide in two different set-ups. Both tramadol- and venlafaxine N-oxide degraded during ozonation in pure (deionized) water in both semi-continuous and batch mode ozonation set-ups. 13 and 17 new transformation products were detected from tramadol- and venlafaxine N-oxide respectively, using high resolution mass spectrometry with ESI(+) ionization. Empirical chemical formulas were proposed based on the determination of the exact masses and interpretation of the product ion spectra. These transformation products result from the addition of one to three oxygen atoms and removal of C, –CH2, C2H2, C3H6, etc., from the parent molecule, respectively. Quenching experiments suggested that most of the transformation products originated from the direct reaction with ozone (eight for tramadol N-oxide and ten for venlafaxine N-oxide), whereas fewer products originated from the reaction with OH radicals (three for tramadol N-oxide and three for venlafaxine N-oxide). Reaction mechanisms and chemical structures of products are proposed, based on the available active sites and past literature on ozone reaction mechanisms. The experimental results are compared to theory and literature on ozone reactive sites and ozone reaction mechanisms. All in all this shows that there can be multiple ozonation products, and ozonation pathways can be complex, even if initially only one ozonation product is formed.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the foreign direct investment status and environment in Nepal. There is significant contribution of foreign investment in economic development of developing countries like Nepal. Foreign investment attraction in a country like Nepal increases the foreign capital and technology transfer. Since 1990s inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) has been increasing in Nepal due to the adoption of liberal economic policy by the government of Nepal. The Foreign Investment Technology Transfer Act (FITTA) has made better foreign investment environment in Nepal. This paper examines and analyses the contribution of FDI in Nepal. For the analysis, simple linear regression model has been applied to measure the impact of FDI on GDP and employment. Because FDI inflow has been recorded after 1990s, the impact of FDI has been analyzed in this paper over the period of 1990/91-2018/19. This study finds a positive impact of FDI on GDP and other macro variables.

This paper presents effectiveness of service delivery practices of local government in federal context. In doing so, focus was given to analyze opportunities and challenges of administrative service delivery functions of Banganga Municipality of Kapilvastu District located in Province Number 5. This study applied mix method approach in which necessary data are collected from 20 administrative staffs and 100 service receivers selected purposively by applying institutional/exit poll survey, KII, and Observation techniques. The findings reflect the administrative service delivery mechanism becoming more accessible to the citizens. However, physical infrastructure of municipal and ward offices found very poor to offer efficient administrative service delivery to all including people with disabilities. The administrative staffs seem capable for offering efficient administrative service delivery but they are not sufficient. However, the municipality is not institutionally strong in terms of physical facilities. The local representatives also seem more accessible and accountable working with limited physical, economic and human resources. Finally, such challenges must be addressed with proper cooperation and collaboration between and among federation, provincial and local government for making regulatory administrative service delivery functions more effective and efficient.

Local governance particularly means democratic participation of the stakeholders in local development. In this process, rural development creates productive environment for market-led and environment friendly development that enrich quality of life of the people. The landscapes of local governance and rural development have been changing with new way of understanding. International communities are now realizing the transformative role of local governance and education. Nepalese government also has been facing many challenges while implementing local governance and rural development efforts. In this context, this paper reflectively appraised local governance and rural development practices of Nepal from decentralization theory and capability approach. However, subsequent discussions are presented based on secondary data, information and literatures. My discussions show that government of Nepal implemented local self-governance act-1999 for proper decentralization of power/jurisdiction in grassroots. Even though, since two decades local governance mechanisms are working with less capable staff and without elected bodies. For implementation of new constitution-2015, federal government restructured 753 local governance units. In that situation this paper came up with the argument that government mechanism need to foster institutional capability by mobilizing skilled manpower for implementing devolved 22 power/jurisdictions in local levels.

Advanced treatment technologies for the removal of pharmaceuticals and other organic micropollutants inWWTPs primarily target the removal of parent compounds. Nevertheless, the removal of metabolites originatingfrom human- or microbial metabolism during biological treatment needs comparable consideration, as some ofthem might be present in high concentrations and contribute to toxicity.This study was conducted to elucidate the removal of human and microbial metabolites of pharmaceuticals as afunction of the specific ozone dose. Ozonation was performed on four sites with two pilot- and two full-scaleplants operated downstream of conventional activated sludge plants. The ozone reactivity of all metabolites(expressed as the ozone dose to remove 90% of the compound/decadic ozone dose) was lower than those oftheir parent compounds. The decadic ozone dose was 1.0, 1.3 and 1.1 mg O3/mg DOC for Epoxy-carbamazepine,Di-OH-carbamazepine and N-Desmethyl tramadol, respectively.20–40% of the remaining metabolites were removed in a polishing sand/BAC-filter (biological activated carbon).Similar removal was observed for Epoxy-carbamazepine, Di-OH-carbamazepine and Hydroxy-diclofenac in aconstructed wetland. However, the sand/anthracite filter had no effect. All four metabolites were removed in aGAC (granulated activated carbon) filter.

The degradation potential of micropollutants and transformation products in biological post-treatment after ozonation is partly unknown. A pilot plant with ozonation and subsequent biological treatment in a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) was thus operated over 16 months to investigate the removal of micropollutants and the formation and removal of N-oxide transformation products. Lab-scale kinetic experiments were performed in parallel. At a moderate ozone dose of 0.5 g O3 g−1 DOC, further degradation of gabapentin and 3 iodinated contrast media (iomeprol, iopamidol, and iohexol) could be induced by the biofilm at prolonged exposure times. To facilitate comparison of feeding regimens in biofilm systems a new surface-related degradation rate constant was introduced. The availability of substrates in the pilot MBBR influenced the micropollutant degradation kinetics with increasing and decreasing degradation rates. N-oxides from erythromycin, clarithromycin, tramadol, and venlafaxine were formed during ozonation and could not be degraded by the biofilm.

The removal of micropollutants from municipal wastewater is challenged by the number of compounds with diverse physico-chemical properties. Ozonation is increasingly used to remove micropollutants from wastewater. However, ozonation does not necessarily result in complete mineralization of the organic micropollutants but rather transforms them into new compounds which could be persistent or have adverse environmental effects. To explore ozone dose dependency of the formation and successive removal of ozonation products, two pilot-scale and one full-scale ozonation plants were operated subsequent to a conventional activated sludge treatment. The results from these trials indicated that the concentrations of several N-oxides, such as Erythromycin N-oxide, Venlafaxine N-oxide and Tramadol N-oxide, increased up to an ozone dose of 0.56–0.61 mg O3/mg DOC while they decreased at elevated doses of 0.7–1.0 mg O3/mg DOC. Similar results were also obtained for two transformation products of Diclofenac (Diclofenac 2,5-quinone imine and 1-(2,6-dichlorophenyl)indolin-2,3-dione) and one transformation product of Carbamazepine (1-(2-benzoic acid)-(1H,3H)-quinazoline-2,4-dione), where the highest concentrations appeared around 0.27–0.31 mg O3/mg DOC. The formation maximum of a given compound occurred at a specific ozone dose that is characteristic for each compound, but seemed to be independent of the wastewater used for the experiments at the two pilots and the full-scale plant.

Several pre-treatment approaches have been explored to enhance the anaerobic fermentation kinetics and efficiency, which include thermal-alkaline treatment, free ammonia, sequential ultrasound techniques as well as grinding, and sieving. Additionally, valorization of mineralized compounds and production of reusable water can also be achieved via post-treatments. The post-treatment concept allows preserving or recovery of value-added byproducts in the form of manures, soil conditioners, and renewable energy. In this chapter, we explain the recent advancement in the pre-treatment and post-treatment of anaerobic digestate to enhance the anaerobic process and for the removal of undesirable compounds, recovery of energy, nutrients, and waste stabilization before disposal.

Agriculture-based industries generate significant amounts and varieties of agro-industrial wastes (AIW). AIW, if not treated properly, may cause environmental pollution and pose a harmful effect on human and animal health. Although AIW consist of organic compounds that can pose a risk to the environment, however, if used in the right way can potentially produce bioenergy, biofertilizer, and biofuels. Energy generation using agro-wastes not only fulfill the energy demand locally but also contribute to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Bioenergy a possible substitute for fossil-fuels can be generated from AIW residues like rice straw, sweet potato, sugarcane bagasse, sawdust, etc. Nutrient-rich and bioactive compounds obtained from AIW can be recycled as raw materials in the agro-based industries, which can reduce the total production costs. Moreover, agricultural wastes, such as animal manures, agricultural effluents, biosolids, etc., can be used as organic fertilizers. This will help to mitigate the scarcity of organic fertilizers and increase the crop yield and productivity. However, the sorption of heavy metals in fertilizers needs to be considered. AIW can be converted to biodegradable plastic or can be used as a feed-in aquaculture industry. Overall, AIW seems to be a potent source of alternative energy and organic fertilizers.

The present article describes the significance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for the rural development. It is based on the perception survey about ICT, suggesting that ICT can be very beneficial and powerful tool for facilitating rural development, particularly in the sectors of e-commerce, e-health, e-government services and the most important e-education, training, information and expertise exchange, experience sharing, communication and society engagement. Overall, ICT is an effective tool for the different dimension of rural development.

The changing livelihood is an unstoppable phenomenon of the contemporary world at the present era. In the due course of social development, changes have been noticed and the social transformation has become an inevitable process. In the study upon the Aarukharka village, various external interventions like modernity, urbanization and globalization have been found to be the causative factors of ongoing changes in the pattern of people’s life and livelihood strategies in the studied community. A qualitative approach backed up by the ethnographic method was applied while various tools and techniques such as elongated stay with the community people followed by key informant interview (KII) and interaction with the participants, observation and discussion were used to gather data. Although change is a dynamic and a common phenomenon, this study implies that the change in the livelihood pattern of the target community is because of the increasing influence of the above mentioned interventions. The finding indicates that livelihood strategies are changing rapidly in the rural areas of Nepal. Despite the fact that the agriculture with livestock farming was an important traditional source of livelihood in the past, the roles of non-agricultural sectors have become significant for livelihood sustaining in the rural communities of Nepal in the present days.

There has often been a gap between policy intentions and outcomes in the field of local governance and public service delivery. Analyzing the factors for these discrepancies requires multi-level approaches that relate policy decisions formulated at the national and international level with the decisions of local governance stakeholders. An Institutional Analysis and Development framework is necessary ability to link multiple local governance levels. Yet most common literatures have been limited to the study of collective action among local communities without considering higher institutional and government levels. To overcome this limitation, I set the methodology of the framework, which bridges the gap between institutional, historical analysis, power-centers, and discourse analysis. This article aims at examining current public service delivery status, analyzing challenges of public service delivery of local government and assessing people’s experience of public service delivery of local government. In conclusion, current status of Local Government is illegal, incomplete and dysfunctional as it is in its service delivery. The major challenge is political instability and political reluctances for local election. The people’s experience over the public service is below the satisfactory level.Research Nepal Journal of Development Studies Vol.1(1) 2018 83-92

This study appraises consequences of educational decentralization process (EDP). This Study has Applied qualitative research approach in which information was collected from purposively selected participants belong to 50 primary and secondary schools of 12 districts. This study reveals that in the course of ensuring quality education to all, Nepalese education system implemented EDP. School management committee (SMC) was a sole authority while implementing 'market system' of educational management. Government of Nepal (GoN) had been practicing and delegated authority of school-teacher management to the SMC. Fundamentalism of politics while re-forming SMCs, low academic qualification, lack of managerial skill or capacity of the members had been regarded as some of the mounting challenges. Further, local people including parents were less aware and less capable of assisting SMCs. The policy of handing over SMC had led to increased interest in and ownership of schools by the community in one hand. On the other hand, the education for all (EFA) documents did not focus on empowering the local communities and SMCs for better management of schools in the local level. The large scale program like the Basic and Primary Education Program (BPEP) had in the past concentrated more on capacity building at the central level. No doubt, EDP had been suffering from covertly tight fiscal management policies. Head teachers did not have the rights and responsibility even for recruitment and professional development of the teachers. Poor institutional capabilities, over politicization, nepotism, favoritism had been increasing teacher absenteeism and over-under staffing.