With 2016 being a special year for Bhutan, the seventh edition of Mountain Echoes Literary Festival started out on a special note. For the first time, the Bhutanese authors outnumber the Indian panelists, as festival director Tshering Tashi noted. Following the traditional lighting of the lamp,  Ambassador Jaideep Sarkar thanked …

Renowned author Amitav Ghosh kicked off the seventh edition of Mountain Echoes Literary Festival with a hard-hitting session on climate change, in The Great Derangement: Politics of the Carbon Economy. Amitav pulled no punches; when asked if he saw himself as part of the solution to climate change, he said that …

More than 400 civil servants from across the country have signed a petition to oppose the Bhutan Civil Service system reform made by the Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC). In-service bachelor’s degree holders claim to be”demotivated, demoralized and perplexed” by the latest reform and its amendment notification on March 4, …

The 11th Annual Consultations between Bhutan and Japan on Economic Cooperation took place in New Delhi on 23 August 2016. Ambassador Kesang Wangdi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs led the Bhutanese delegation comprising of officials from the Gross National Happiness Commission, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Works and Human Settlement, …

Packed buses are leaving the Thimphu bus terminal as the electorate moves to constituencies to support nomination of their candidates in the second local government elections scheduled for the first week of September. “I booked seats a few days ago for my wife and I to travel to Trashigang,” said …

In Samkhar gewog, experience triumphed in the chiwog zomdu held last week to finalise the nominations for gup contestants. Of the four aspiring gup candidates in the gewog, a former Gup and the Gewog Gaydrung went through the nominations with majority votes. Former Gup Sonam Dorji defeated his uncle Jangchub …

Paga chiwog in Chapcha gewog, Chukha, has no candidates for the Gup or Mangmi post but has  four candidates contesting for the past of Tshogpa. During the Chiwog Zomdu to nominate candidates only 33 people showed up from its 35 households with 198 eligible voters. Dagow, 52, the former Tshogpa, …

Two former mangmis(deputy gups) will take on each other to become gup of Phangkhar gewog in the central district of Zhemgang in the forthcoming second local government elections. They were chosen from four contestants during the recently held Chiwog Zomdu (village cluster meeting) where the primary round election was held …

Phuentsholing gewog has nominated its former Mangmi to contest for Gup. Chandra Man Rai, 37, from Linding Chiwog served as Mangmi of Phuentsholing gewog since 2004. He completed higher secondary education from Thimphu in 2003. Now after 13 years as Mangmi, Chandra Man Rai is contesting for gup. “I never …

The price of the smaller and spicier fresh green chilli has been rising ever since the agriculture ministry banned import of Indian chillies after detecting high content of pesticide residue in July this year. A slump in domestic production because of the heavy monsoon has not helped to ease the …