In what will be good news Kinley Wangchuck (second from right in the photo), an 18 year old student with hearing loss, and his family will not be deported from Australia. Australian Immigration Minister David Coleman MP has used his discretionary powers to grant permanent residency to Kinley and his family. This …
Read More »BRAND BHUTAN or CHEAP BHUTAN : Bhutan being marketed massively in India as part of India’s low cost domestic tourism circuit
Cheaper than many mass tourism sites in India the added incentive for Bhutan is being a cheap foreign destination along with Kathmandu Bhutan has been groaning for a while now with the explosion in the number of regional tourists, with their numbers going from 50,722 regional tourists in 2012 to …
Read More »Extraordinarily high Nu 167.20 mn estimate for 2.5 km road widening project in Lhuentse raises doubts
The cost is higher than that for constructing an entirely new road An anonymous letter addressed to the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) with copies to the Royal Audit Authority (RAA) and The Bhutanese raises some serious concerns on the abnormally high estimate of Nu 167.20 mn for a 2.5 km …
Read More »With regional tourists taking over TCB lowers its 500,000 tourists by 2023 target
1.5 bn approved by cabinet for the Tourism Flagship program Until recently, the Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) aimed to get in 500,000 tourists by 2023 as part of the tourism flagship program. This is up from the 274,097 tourists that came into Bhutan in 2018. However, the TCB, after …
Read More »Faced with CS outrage Finance Minister clarifies Pay Commission’s report does not reflect Cabinet Position
As per the OAG’s Constitutional interpretation the Cabinet can reject or alter the report In a strategic and deliberate move the Cabinet, on the evening of 9th April, released the Fourth Pay Commission report on the Cabinet website along with a facebook post and tweet from the Prime Minister’s official …
Read More »Fourth Pay Commission shares recommendations to Cabinet
The Hike The Cabinet released the fourth pay commission report which recommends a 14% to 29% pay hike. For civil servants the pay hike recommendation is 14% to 21% hike. It has a higher hike of 21% for O4 to O1 level, 18% for S5 to S1 level, 16% for …
Read More »Study shows vulnerabilities for Bhutan in case of the big quake
A seven-year study on Bhutan’s geo-dynamics from 2011 to 2018 by a combination of internal and Bhutanese experts showed that Bhutan is due for a big quake of 7.5 to 8 magnitude since the last quake of that size was seen only in 1714 and so pressure has been building …
Read More »Mining Bill favors private participation with better regulation
Many new provisions in the bill are aimed at resolving the current issues in the mining sector There have been three main debates around the mining industry in the last few years. One has been on state versus private ownership, the second has been on lack of adequate regulation and …
Read More »Sunkosh stuck due to differences between Bhutan and India on implementation modality
The agreement for the 2560 MW Sunkosh project, by all indications, was supposed to be signed last year as part of the 50 years of diplomatic relations. Bhutan’s Foreign Ministry listed it as one of the highlights of the celebrations and the former Prime Minister said that the project would …
Read More »PM willing to walk back on ‘wow factor’
After the idea came under a lot of flak the PM says it will not happen if the civil servants don’t want it On 15th February, the Prime Minister in a press conference announced that the government had asked the 4th Pay Commission to come up with a performance based …
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The Bhutanese Leading the way.