Developer

The Global Climate-Finance Challenge

LONDON – The dust has now settled after the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt, but there are still many unanswered questions about how to finance emissions reductions and adaptation. The world will not avoid dangerous levels of climate change without a significant increase in investment in developing …

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Soelra culture and MPs

In 2008 soon after MPs were elected to their posts they started getting calls from constituents requesting for voucher recharges and many complied. It was from then that our political thinking and culture took a very wrong turn with people expecting soelra and gifts from politicians for their votes. The …

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The Napoleons of Big Tech

LONDON – Companies have long had to manage “key person risk,” even taking out insurance against the possibility of losing top executives through death, illness, or injury. But the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX, Meta’s plummeting share price, and the chaos at Twitter following its takeover by Elon Musk suggest that “key people” can pose …

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Empowering people to make reforms work

One key aspect of the recent Royal Address in the Parliament was that despite a lot of budget and time spent in the past to address various issues facing the nation, the outcome was not satisfactory. The address in essence brought out the repeated failures of the governance system and …

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Local taxes for local development

The Property Tax Bill is a long due up gradation of the land and property taxes stuck since 1992. However, what does not make sense in this bill is the provision to transfer the local land and property taxes collected so far in local government CD accounts into the central …

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Bold Tax moves by the Govt

In the last year of any elected government, they normally stay a mile away from any controversial decisions or legislations that would impact its political prospects. The most controversial of these are tax legislations that increases taxes. However, almost counterintuitively this government has already introduced two major tax legislations that …

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Tight Security after the Lhab Dorji incident

Earlier in April this year, the former Dzongda and JDWNRH President, Lhab Dorji, stabbed and assaulted an ACC Director while his family members assaulted an ACC Commissioner in the Supreme Court premises. The incident was a massive security failure and so it is good that following the incident the RBP …

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The moratorium on CSI and BDBL

I’m not a banker, but I’m surprised by the patent lack of understanding displayed by FM Lyonpo regarding the lifting of moratorium on CSI and BDBL.   I read recently a notice by the RMA clarifying the underlying reason and rationale for the imposition of the moratorium in the first place.  …

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The Great Reformer

The transformation reforms from its inception has generated much speculation, but His Majesty’s detailed Royal Address to the Parliament not only clarified all confusions but also showed that the reforms are keeping the people at its very center. His Majesty’s impactful words that the people cannot serve the RCSC, RMA, …

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Elon Musk’s Covert War on Free Speech

NEW YORK – In 1897, the American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst sent illustrator Frederic Remington to cover the Cuban War of Independence. When Remington relayed that “there will be no war,” Hearst allegedly cabled back: “You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war.” It’s an old story with a well-known moral: …

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